Betsy Alden
Visiting Lecturer, Public Policy Studies

Betsy Alden is Service-Learning Coordinator of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke, working with faculty, students, community agencies, and Durham public schools to promote the academic integration of ethical reflection and service experiences into the undergraduate curriculum. As a theologian and educator, Dr. Alden has been engaged in women's leadership as a feminist community activist, a United Methodist clergywoman since 1974, a member of commissions on the status and role of women in church, civic, and national organizations, and on several national boards, including the National Partnership for Service-Learning, Ministry to Blacks in Higher Education, the National Campus Ministry Association, and the Presbyterian Church's (international) Self-Development of People Committee.

She attended Duke University, Colorado College, Indiana University, and Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and holds degrees in English, theology, and religious education. A Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate, Betsy was also awarded the Outstanding Volunteer Award in Dallas, Texas, for her creation of The Praxis Project, a service-learning model which has been replicated at over 100 campuses across the country. In 1996, just before moving to her current position at Duke, she was named Outstanding Woman of New Mexico, where she taught in community colleges and in the Honors program at the University of New Mexico, served as Continuing Education Coordinator for the NM State Conference of Churches, and initiated and managed a Learn-and-Serve America grant.

A wife and mother of three grown children, Betsy has "learned by doing" the delicate balancing of commitments to family, career, civic, and personal life and enjoys engaging with Duke students in the "Women as Leaders" course she teaches.