Hi! I’m Betsy.

Career fundraiser and director-level at a nonprofit in Washington, DC.
Mom of two young kids and a senior dog.
Wife of a professional with a less flexible job than mine.

I love cooking, entertaining, and making my Jewish house a home,
and I try to stay true to myself while keeping my head above water.

Why External Affairs?

I had coffee with a new mentor about a year ago and she asked where I see myself in five years career-wise. While answering, I told her that what I’ve come to love most about my role - my title was then Director of External Affairs, though it’s now Director of Institutional Advancement - are the opportunities to encourage colleagues in my field and being a part of creating strategies for to promote my organization.

In a way, this blog is an extension of that. You - working moms - are my colleagues and our institution is working motherhood. We can’t fix the systemic issues that challenge us on our own; just as individual households switching from plastic to reusable bags isn’t going to make a significant impact on climate change, us discussing workarounds for the challenges with which we’re faced isn’t going to solve sexism or any of the other political and cultural obstacles we have to overcome. But we can share ways to advocate for ourselves and other working parents in our families, in the workplace, and in local, state, and federal government.

These are our external affairs.

Who am I?

Raise your hand if you love personality tests. You too? I thought so! I’ve done a lot of them through work and just for fun:

  • According to the enneagram, I’m a Type 1, an idealist who is rational, principled, and judicial in my behavior and has a desire for justice and equality. That sounds noble, but the list of weaknesses for Type 1s hits me right in the soft “yikes, that sounds familiar” spot.

  • The Lakota Medicine Wheel:
    The Judge (12)
    The Visionary (8)
    The Warrior (7)
    The Humanist (6)

  • Gallup’s CliftonStrengths is my favorite of these analyses for professional understanding and growth, but my top five strengths make a lot of sense outside the workplace, too:

  • People exceptionally talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve.

  • People exceptionally talented in the Input theme have a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships.

  • People exceptionally talented in the Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how different people can work together productively.

  • People exceptionally talented in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all of the factors that might affect a situation.Item description

  • People exceptionally talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.Item description

A few notes:

“Um… is this one of those ‘how often do you think about the Roman Empire’ things?”
- Jon’s response when I asked him how he’d feel if I started a new blog

My husband is much more private than I am. Please know that everything I write about him and our relationship has been approved by him for publication. Because our kids are too young to truly understand what it means to have their stories online and therefore can’t give consent themselves, Jon is serving as their proxy.

I’m Jewish, though my husband isn’t, and I’ll write about raising an interfaith family on this blog. Feel free to ask any questions you might have about Judaism as I understand it, what I believe and how I practice, and how our family is exploring being Jewish/Jew-ish. FYI, Jews don’t proselytize. You can read more about why here! But I know that a lot of people who find me online don’t know many - or any - Jews and I’m more than happy to explain anything you might wonder about as long as you come in good faith. (No pun intended!)