For over 25 years, Betsy has been dedicated to building cultural and narrative power for Indigenous peoples and other BIPOC communities. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she brings to her role a wealth of experience in museums, philanthropy, social justice, and the performing arts.
During her seven years as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, she led a $30 million grantmaking effort for Native American and place-based cultural communities, initiated the creation of the unprecedented Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and served as the global chair of its Committee on Indigenous Peoples. Prior to Ford, she spent five years as the inaugural Director of Public Programs at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, the country’s largest tribal museum and research center, leading the development of their educational programs, interpretation, and public events.
For the last decade, Betsy has led The Opportunity Agenda’s national cultural strategy initiatives with artists, influencers, and advocates to shift narrative, culture, and policy towards greater economic and racial justice. Among her accomplishments were the leadership of the highly influential Creative Change retreats at Sundance (hosting comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, Daily Show founder Lizz Winstead, and advocate Suzan Shown Harjo, among many others) and social impact campaigns for the Broadway and Netflix presentations of Kerry Washington’s production American Son.
In addition, she has run two theater companies, served as a Fellow at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and has developed and directed plays by Native playwrights on stages in New York, Los Angeles, and Canada.
Betsy currently serves on the Maine Arts Commission and is the Chair of the Board for the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. In 2024, she was appointed a Commissioner for the United States Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts & Crafts Board. Her past board service has included the New England Foundation for the Arts, Connecticut Commission on Arts Education, Grantmakers in the Arts, and the Green Feather Foundation. Betsy holds a BFA from NYU and an MFA from Yale University.
