Home › Policy Research › From the Center Out

From the Tribute Given to Center Board Member Betsy Justus Upon Completion of Her Terms of Service by Center Director Ran Coble,

July 12, 2011 — Nancy

Link to obituary

Betsy Justus – Center Board member, 1997-2002 and 2005-2010

             Only 4 people have served 2 sets of 2 terms – a total of 12 years – on the Center’s Board, and very few people have been elected Chair of the Board for 2 consecutive years. Betsy Justus has done both of those, and I have just loved working with her.
 
            Listen to all she’s done in just her last 6 years:
 
            She won the Board award for attendance at meetings early in her tenure and continued that over her 2 terms. Counting all Board and committee meetings over 6 years, she was there in person for 60 out of a possible 76 meetings.
 
            She was a great fundraiser, raising $10,000 or more every year for the last 5 years. She also recognized that our region’s economy was changing, so she took me on personal visits to new companies in Research Triangle Park.
 
            In addition to being a Center member, she contributes above her membership dues as an Individual Donor, and she has recruited other Individual Donors.
 
She has called at least 5 foundations in support of our grant proposals. 
 
            She is a great spokesperson and advocate for the Center. She spoke at our receptions in Hickory and Greensboro in 2010, wrote county commissioners in 12 counties a few years ago, gave 10 gift memberships every year, and sponsored tables at 2 different Center events. She also hosted a Board meeting at her office at Alphanumeric Systems this year.
 
            During her tenure, she has served on the Membership Committee and Nominating Committee and chaired the Resource Development Committee.
 
            She also meets with Nancy Rose (Asst. Treasurer to the Board) and me prior to every Board meeting to plan what we want to accomplish. 
 
            She’s been a great leader on our Technology Initiative – focusing on it in our Strategic Plan and pushing each year for continuous progress. As a result, we have a new Website, and we now have made all 35 years of the Center’s research available on the Web. This may be her greatest legacy as a Board member. 
 
And, as you heard earlier in our stories about her winning The Overall Board Performance Award, she leads by example – the most effective kind of leadership.
 
            If you had to pick the 2 hardest years to lead a nonprofit Board in the last 10 years, I’ll bet you’d pick the last 2, and one of the main reasons the Center survived and thrived, unlike a lot of nonprofits, is Betsy.
 
       To commemorate your service, Betsy, we have a framed cover of the Insight journal issued on the future of community colleges in N.C. because it was the first issue of our journal that represented progress in our Technology Initiative – where you have been an exemplary leader – because it was transmitted electronically to the printer, and it was the first time we used print-on-demand, which saved us money from not printing copies we might never sell, and we still produced a beautiful product that is now available online. We also picked this issue for you because it got policy results, and you’re results-oriented. As a result of this research, for the third consecutive year, the legislature appropriated funds in 2010 in response to specific Center findings and recommendations, including: (a) $12 million to address equipment shortages that had forced community colleges to cancel 98 job training programs in an economy where job retraining is critical; (b) $900,000 to provide mentoring for minority males in community colleges after their graduation numbers declined three years in a row; and (c) $6.2 million for high-demand, high-cost training to address work force shortages in health-related fields, such as the need for 9,000 more nurses by 2015. You want the Center’s research to matter and improve this state we love so much, and we all love you, Betsy. Thank you for your exemplary service as a Board member for the Center.
 
 
Because of her health challenges, Betsy was unable to attend the December 2010 Board meeting and hear this tribute in person. We sent it to her shortly after. She will be greatly missed by all of us associated with the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.
[image] Betsy Y. Justus