Elizabeth Cavendish

Who is Elizabeth Cavendish?

Elizabeth Cavendish is the President of Appleseed Foundation, a position she began in March 2007, a year after serving as interim president of NARAL, a prominent American pro-choice advocacy group. She gained the position in May, 2004 following the resignation of longtime NARAL president Kate Michelman. Previously, she served as NARAL's legal director and on the staff of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department under Attorney General Janet Reno.

Betsy Cavendish has 27 years of experience in the public arena, including work in all three branches of government and in academia. Before joining Appleseed, she had extensive experience in nonprofit leadership. She spent several years at the U.S. Department of Justice and was an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Betsy was a law clerk for Judge Gerhard Gesell on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on one of the most high-profile cases of the 1980s, United States v. Oliver North. She is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.