Betsy Cavendish

Board Treasurer

Betsy Cavendish has 27 years of experience in the public arena, including work in all three branches of government and in academia.  She is the executive director of Appleseed, a non-profit network of 16 public interest justice centers in the United States and Mexico. Before joining Appleseed, she served as interim president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, where she previously had been vice president, legal director and general counsel. She spent several years at the U.S. Department of Justice and was an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Betsy was a law clerk for Judge Gerhard Gesell on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on one of the most high-profile cases of the 1980s, United States v. Oliver North. She is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.

Since assuming the leadership role at Appleseed, Betsy has guided the organization on a number of ambitious programs related to social justice, particularly in the fields of financial access, education, and immigrant rights. As executive director, she oversees collaborative work among Appleseed Centers throughout the United States and Mexico and promotes the development of the Appleseed network.