Betsy plays a guiding role in all aspects of the organization and supports LiKENeers as they work to further goals laid out in LiKEN strategic plans. She is a founding director of LiKEN.

Betsy worked for community-driven development in Appalachia and South Asia -- seeking to integrate issues of health, agriculture, forestry, culture and environmental stewardship. Her scholarly writings focus on environmental and social justice movements, democratic planning and participatory research, women's issues, the commons, democratic reclamation of academe / professions. Herbert Reid and Betsy co-authored the book, Recovering the Commons: Democracy, Place, and Global Justice (University of Illinois Press, 2010). At the University of Kentucky, she served as Co‐Director of Environmental Studies, Research Director for the Appalachian Center and on the faculty of the Social Theory program. Betsy was a research faculty member in the Appalachian Studies program at Virginia Tech.