Heather “Betsy” Garrold grew up in Searsport Maine and currently lives in Knox. A graduate of Searsport District High School where she was a Teenage Republican and voted for the first time on her 18th birthday. A graduate of the University of Maine and Case Western Reserve University with degrees in nursing Garrold practiced for 30 years as an RN and a Nurse Midwife
She proudly served her country in the Marshall Islands where she was a Lieutenant in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corp.
Garrold returned to Maine with her son in 1999 to a piece of land she homesteads to this day in Knox, Maine. She ran for the Legislature for the first time in 2002 as a member of the Maine Green Independent Party. She was subsequently a state party Co-Chair for several years and continues to be active in the party.
Anne Gillum presenting Betsy with the Outstanding Leadership award from the National Health Freedom Coalition.
Since retiring she has devoted herself to volunteer work and food sovereignty activism. As President of Food for Maine’s Future she was part of the group that pushed for the passage of the Food Sovereignty Act of 2017 and was part of the political action committee that successfully passed the Right to Food Constitutional Amendment this past November. She has served as both a citizen and a paid lobbyist in Augusta around several local food issues.
In 2016 she was the ground campaign director for New England and Delaware for the Jill Stein for President campaign. She has also worked on other statewide and local campaigns. Most notably Jean Hay-Bright’s campaign against Olympia Snowe for the US Senate seat in Maine and Pat LaMarche’s Maine Gubernatorial race.
As past Vice President of the National Family Farm Coalition she has worked with farmers and ranchers across the country protecting small family farmers from the overreach of the corporate food monopolies.
In keeping with her devotion to making sure local people have access to local food she volunteers at the Jackson Food Pantry and helps run the seedling project for Waldo County Bounty. She is a past board member of the Marsh River Co-op, the Belfast Co-op and Fedco Seeds. She currently sits on the board of the Farwell Project in Thorndike.