Betsy Packard is from Needham, MA, and her family in that area goes back to the early 17th century giving her deep roots but also colonizer guilt. Her seafaring family produced a dad who was a career Coast Guard officer, so she's lived in many different places. She attended The Ohio State University in the 1970s earning a B.S. in Secondary Level Social Studies Education. Her graduate work was in Family Relations and Human Development, specializing in Developmental Disabilities.  In 1976, through a grant-funded project, she compiled and edited a resource guide for Ohio's persons with Developmental Disabilities, their families and service providers. In the mid '90s, she edited Open Minds, a grant funded project which was a collection of writing and artwork by Kentucky's mental health services consumers. Currently she am working toward a MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry at the University of Kentucky.