Betty Aldworth serves as the Co-Executive Director of MAPS, working with colleagues and allies across the drug policy reform movement toward legal and equitable access to psychedelics for healing and personal growth in a post-prohibition context. She most recently served in the role of Director of Communications & Education at MAPS. With the Communications team, Betty worked to share MAPS’ story with our audiences and generate support for psychedelic research and reform through the media.
Prior to joining MAPS in 2020, Betty was the Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, where she led and supported tens of thousands of students and young people united to build a more sensible future through reforming drug policies to be rooted in safety, justice, and education. Beginning in 2014, Betty led the organization through its most substantial growth period, and in 2020, she left the organization in its most stable and sustainable position in its 22-year history. Since 1999, Betty has specialized in community engagement, public relations, advocacy, and policy reform for nonprofit organizations, including as spokesperson and advocacy director for the successful 2012 Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the collaborative committee responsible for legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana for adults in Colorado. An activist and advocate since attending her first peace demonstration as a child, Betty organized her first action at 13 and learned her first hard lessons in coalition building when it was attended only by her mom. Betty fights to end the drug war to interrupt mass incarceration, re-engage citizens in the political process, and build racial and economic justice. She serves as an advisor to DanceSafe and StoptheDrugWar.org and as the Chair of the Boards of Directors for the Marijuana Policy Project & MPP Foundation.