Co-Founder / Academic Navigator
Like our students, Betsye’s pathway through academia has been… tangled. Oft viewed as a series of failed events, beginning with skipping high school classes to smoke under the bridge, reading Sweet Valley High books instead of studying for the SATs, dropping out of college five times, trying to complete a PhD at Cornell before both her kids graduate from college, to trying to write this tortured bio. Though she detests writing, she still managed to earn master’s degrees in Literature and History, and her love of books translated into a love of teaching and a passion for education.
She began as a community college instructor in English and History many, many years ago and eventually found her way into higher education in prison, first as a volunteer instructor and later working in student services and program leadership. That work fundamentally changed how she thought about education—not simply as something that happens in a classroom, but as something shaped by access, systems, money, technology, transportation, housing, and all the other things that can determine whether someone gets to be a student in the first place.
Today, Betsye works primarily in the community with justice-impacted and returning individuals, providing direct services and helping people navigate education, reentry, benefits, and other complicated systems that were apparently designed by people who really enjoy forms. Through Remark Navigation and her community-based work, she focuses on academic and workforce navigation, financial and digital literacy, and building practical networks of support around people as they figure out what comes next.
Whether teaching speculative fiction in a classroom, sitting beside someone trying to untangle an application, or helping a returning student figure out how to get from where they are to where they want to be, Betsye believes education works best when it is accessible, relevant, and rooted in the goals people set for themselves. Though a complete social introvert with terrible taste in books and music, she believes deeply in creating community and building the kind of support that allows people to define—and pursue—success on their own terms.