Join the LWV Moscow for a Speaker Series presentation, Climate Change: League actions, resources, and what you can do, presented by Betsy McBride, Co-President of LWV Idaho, and Diz Swift, Founder and Co-Chair, LWV of the US Climate Interest Group, on Wed., Dec. 13 at Noon via Zoom. Join the Zoom presentation: bit.ly/LWVMspeakers, Meeting ID: 835 0394 1866, Passcode: 432184. 

Climate change is a unique challenge that the entire global community faces. Every person has a role in finding community solutions and also in lessening their individual negative impacts. Public policies and personal choices can provide a sustainable future but only IF working together, we provide the means and the will.

Betsy McBride is Co-President of the LWV of Idaho and chair of the State League’s Climate Action Committee. She’s an Idaho native from Pocatello, who now lives in Boise. She earned her BA in Political Science, with a minor in Economics, from the University of Denver. Not one to let moss grow between her toes, she began her affiliation with the League in Boise in 1970, but because of job transfers, ended up joining Leagues in nine states. In addition to serving as president for the LWVID, McBride was also elected state president for the LWV of Colorado and state vice-president for the Pennsylvania League.

Her professional background includes executive directorship of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement to support collaborative public policy decision-making; Media Coordinator for the City of Virginia Beach; overseeing government relations for the Pillsbury Company; and serving as assistant executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based Search for Common Ground.

McBride worked with the non-partisan Kettering Foundation, whose mission is to “(advance) inclusive democracies by fostering citizen engagement, promoting government accountability, and countering authoritarianism.” She has won state and international awards for community engagement projects, and facilitated a White House conference for federal judges. Although her longtime advocacy focus has been on environmental public policy (and she once wrote a publication for the LWVUS about transporting radioactive waste), lately she has been drawn to addressing State League issues involving tax policy in Idaho and state funding for education. 

Diz Swift began her geology career during her Peace Corps tenure, ultimately publishing the glacial geology of Tierra del Fuego. She ultimately earned a PhD in geology and worked in minerals exploration and energy in a variety of roles, including senior management, from which she took early retirement.

After retirement, Swift returned to her geology roots to study climate change and advocate for action. She lectures widely on climate science, action and policy, including five years as a guest lecturer at the NYU Stern Business School. She began learning about government and policy as a Berkeley Public Works Commissioner and with the League of Women Voters. She is currently Director of Natural Resources for the League of Women Voters of California where she advocates with the League for climate and related legislation. She founded and is co-chair of the national League of Women Voters Climate Interest Group with 1600 members spearheading grass-roots climate action in nearly all 50 states. Still interested in geology, she is also working on the genesis and ore emplacement for a sapphire mine in Montana.