Betsy Goolian works in the Department of Development at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where she is editor and writer for the School's alumni magazine Michigan Muse, among other responsibilities. She is a Michigan alumna, with a bachelor’s degree in French. She comes from a long line of Michigan grads, including both parents and her great uncle Armen Kurkjian, who graduated with a degree in engineering in 1908. Her father earned his bachelor’s and master’s at the School of Music (BM '42, MM '47), in piano performance, working with Joseph Brinkman.

Ms. Goolian has worked in and around universities most of her life, starting with the Department of English Language & Literature at the U-M immediately after graduation. Following a move to Seattle in 1974, she worked for the University of Washington for 15 years, in various capacities, including the Jackson School of International Studies, the Foreign Study Office, and the Department of History, mostly in the area of publications and events. She left the UW in 1992 to join the staff of Seattle's University Unitarian Church, where she remained until 1999 when Betsy and her husband Cougas Jones moved back to their roots in southeastern Michigan. They live in Whitmore Lake and are the proud parents of Chumleigh, a miniature wirehaired dachshund.