Member Spotlight
Betsy Doucet
Published October 21, 2026
Tell me about yourself. We’ve heard you love to travel!
Yes, I do love to travel. Over the years I have been fortunate to visit more than 50 different countries. I used to have a traveling buddy who was also a lawyer. Together we traveled the world. This summer my husband Robert and I cruised the Columbia and Snake Rivers. More recently we spent two weeks in Nice and Paris. Traveling has exposed me to numerous new ideas and friends. The early part of my life I was a journalist in Vietnam covering the Vietnam War. As a friend used to say that’s where we grew up. After returning from Vietnam, I decided I wanted to become a lawyer to try to make the world a better place for me and my family.
I attended Loyola Law School of the South, worked for New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation and then became a reporter on The Times-Picayune.
When I moved south for law school, I came with a bias about the South, which quickly disappeared. After leaving Louisiana in 1980, Lex (my daughter) and I lived in New York, California, and Ohio. We returned to Louisiana in 2005, shortly before Hurricane Rita, after getting tired of shoveling snow in Columbus, Ohio, every winter.
From the first week we moved to Moss Bluff, I felt Moss Bluff was my home and resented having to travel back to Ohio for business. My husband Robert had never lived in the South, so running away from a hurricane was something new to him. My daughter Alexis was born in New Orleans, but she cannot stand the humidity and lives elsewhere.
Betsy and husband Robert Goldman at the side of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, September 2026.
You’ve been an Annual Member of the Community Foundation for several years. What keeps you involved, and what does being a member mean to you?
I became a member of the Community Foundation several years ago. The foundation contributes so much toward making Lake Charles a wonderful place to live. Recently, I became involved in the Bayou Greenbelt project, probably because of the aspect involving the pollinator garden.
While I am and have been a lawyer for almost 60 years, I have a social worker’s heart and, as such, believe in contributing to the community in which I live. Early on, we became members of The Artists Civic Theatre and Studio (ACTS) and participated in numerous productions, from being on stage to running sound or lights or making props.
The Community Foundation provides support to many organizations like ACTS. On the philanthropic side, the Community Foundation regularly offers educational programs for lawyers, accountants, and financial advisers in the community, in the form of their Continuing Education Seminar every August.
You’ve been a longtime gardener and Master Gardener. What do you love most about gardening, and what does it mean to you to see the Pollinator Garden come to life along Bayou Greenbelt?
Yes. My mother passed her love of gardening on to my brothers and me, and I have been a gardener ever since. When we moved to Lake Charles, a friend introduced me to the master gardener program. I enrolled in the course led by Robert Turley at the LSU Ag Center, never imagining how much it would enrich my life.
Twenty years later, gardening remains my escape from the pressures of practicing law and everyday life. I have two weaknesses, three if you count chocolate: plants and books. I can’t visit a nursery or even a hardware store that sells plants without buying at least one, and I find books just as hard to resist. My love of reading is also why I enjoy The Review Club, one of the oldest book clubs in Louisiana, if not the United States.
The Pollinator Garden has long been a dream for several people in our community, and the future Bayou Greenbelt kayak launch is an ideal location for it. I’m also pleased that McNeese’s biology department will tend the garden, which will feature mostly native plants.
You’ve chosen to establish an endowment with the Community Foundation. What inspired you to create a fund, and why was the Community Foundation the right fit for your giving?
I am fortunate that I can create an endowment with the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana. I believe the Community Foundation aligned with the Greater Baton Rouge Community Foundation at this time of my life was the appropriate choice for long-term charitable giving.
There are a number of causes important to me and this was the right time and right place to make that decision. Naming the endowment in honor of my parents was meant as a tribute to them and how they raised my brothers and I.
You’ve supported organizations and causes that are meaningful to you throughout your life. How do you decide where you want your philanthropic dollars to make a difference?
What is the expression? It takes a village. I believe none of us make it through life without support and help from those around us.
I remember the people and institutions that helped me along the way from high school up to today. I believe in paying forward and my thought process in making philanthropic decisions is based on that premise. Also, I am a strong believer in the importance of a free press and try to provide support in furtherance of that.
You practiced law and have been involved in many parts of the community. Looking back, what are you most proud to have been part of here in Southwest Louisiana?
I could write a book to answer this final question because there are numerous things I am proud of having done or contributed to since we moved to Southwest Louisiana.
However, the recent planting of the pollinator garden right now tops everything else.
The turnout of more than 50 people, many gardeners but many not, to plant the pollinator garden warmed my heart. On a steamy, hot afternoon, as Thursday was, members of Diggers and Weeders, The Lake Charles Garden Club, the Master Gardeners, the Master Naturalists, and the people from Philips 66 and McNeese University came out to create the pollinator garden for future communities.