In addition to providing the highest level of commitment to clients and the legal profession, Attorney Betsy Walits also contributes to the community. She is a mock trial judge, a public forum judge and a Lincoln-Douglas Debate judge. She recently accepted a volunteer position as Regional Coordinator for Indiana High School Mock Trial Association. While at Purdue, she earned distinction as "teacher of the year." She is a Certified Family Law Mediator.
She is a member of the Lake County Bar Association, the Indiana State Bar Association, the Porter County Bar Association and the Women Lawyers Association and a past member of the National Association of Bar Executives and a delegate to the Indiana State Bar meeting for two years.
Past memberships in the American Association of University Professors, National Tour Association/Foundation, American Bus Association, Greater Buffalo Convention and Visitors Bureau, Niagara Falls New York Chamber of Commerce, Hamburg New York Chamber of Commerce, Eden New York Chamber of Commerce (where she served on the Board of Directors) Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce only serve to highlight the depth and breadth of her business, management and leadership experience.
Betsy completed her Masters' Degree at Cornell University in Hotel and Restaurant Administration and her undergraduate degree in Psychology at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Mass. During and after college, Betsy lived on Cape Cod, where she was General Manager of a Railroad and a Tour Operator. After moving to Buffalo, New York, Betsy joined the faculty of Niagara University, published two college textbooks in 1990 under her maiden name Fay (now out of print-Prentice Hall) while she was a tenured professor at Niagara University, and was a featured speaker all over North America in Tour Operations and Hospitality Management .
Betsy owned her own Bed & Breakfast named "Eden Inn Bed & Breakfast in Eden, New York from 1991 to 2000, while still working at Niagara University, and while going to law school. During the same period, she also operated Fay Associates, a desktop publishing and employment consulting firm. Betsy landed in Valparaiso in 2000, worked at Purdue North Central for 5 years, was Executive Director of the Lake County Bar Association for 2 1/2 years and practices law in Northwest Indiana.
Betsy has been a competitive singer for more than 25 years, and has sung with groups including but not limited to, Two Mothers and Two Others, "Images", Sound Effects, Stepsisters, Noteorious, and earned four championship gold medals with Village Vocal Chords, and achieved top ten quartet distinction 10 times.