Betsy Brazy (JD 09)

Betsy Brazy grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated from Indiana University with a degree in journalism and Spanish. After college, Betsy worked in print journalism as a reporter and editor. Her first newspaper jobs were in Texas, where, among other assignments, she covered the police and the courts. What attracted Betsy to journalism was the opportunity to provide a voice for communities that were not always heard. This potential for community service is the same thing that attracted her to the law.

Betsy decided to become a lawyer herself when she experienced the difference that having a legal advocate made in her own life. Her daughter Sarah, now 9, had been diagnosed with autism and Betsy was waging a battle with an unresponsive school district to try to get Sarah the services she needed. Until Betsy and her husband, John Cartan, hired a special education lawyer, the school district seemed uninterested in Sarah's parents' point of view. Betsy did the legwork for the lawyer, helping him prepare the case, and, after an 11-day hearing, Betsy, John and Sarah won all their claims against the school district.

Going through that ordeal helped Betsy see firsthand the devastating impact that filing a lawsuit against a government agency can have on a family - financially and emotionally. She came to GGU to become a disability rights lawyer in order to help other people with special needs. Betsy's focus and determination have paid off: last fall she interned with Disability Rights California in Oakland where she found a home for her experience and learned a lot. She also made good connections in the disability rights community, including DRC Staff Attorney Jung Pham (JD'07). She is a charter member of the National Association of Law Students With Disabilities and attended the August 2008 conference in Washington, DC.

As Betsy juggles the responsibilities of family life and law school, her husband is her greatest support. John, a software-interface programmer, functions as "Mr. Mom" for Sarah when Betsy is away from home, and sometimes when she is not. John and Betsy met on AOL in 1991. He was living in Montana, which for Betsy was "geographically undesirable." They continued to get to know one another, however, and when John double-dared her to visit, Betsy told him she would and started to make plans. She also told him that her father thought he should be the one to visit first. Three days later John arrived on her doorstep bearing three red roses. Five days after that they were engaged.

In addition to school and family, Betsy loves to knit and to read Regency Romance novels. When asked what message or advice she has for fellow students, Betsy says: "Don't take no for an answer. Ask why instead."

Professor Susan Rutberg teaches and directs GGU's Externship Programs. She was Betsy's Trial Advocacy teacher in fall 2008.