Betsy Bell, born before WWII in New York City, spent her formative years in the Jim Crow town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. As a Girl Scout she began her social justice activism working with a bi-racial team to plan desegregation after the 1954 Supreme Court decision to integrate public schools. Graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a BA in 1959 and an MA in 1963, she began an academic career in Lawrence, Kansas where her husband taught. In Lawrence, she advocated for reproductive rights with Planned Parenthood. She lives in Seattle where she has held several career positions, interrupted by long residential stays in England and South Africa where her husband's academic work took him. Twice widowed, Betsy has published two short memoirs and several poems. For the past fourteen years, Betsy has worked with the Seattle area faith communities toward economic justice through the Jubilee USA Network. She has traveled extensively in many parts of the world, with her two deceased husbands, one or more of her sixteen grandchildren, four daughters or four step-children. She has maintained a direct selling health related business for the past thirty years. Betsy believes in the power of ordinary citizens to create a positive, inclusive and just society. Visit her web site to learn about her career as a writer and sign up to receive notification of the publication of her first memoir, Open Borders, A Personal Story of Love, Loss and Anti-war Activism. www.BetsyBellAuthor.com.
