At the annual Awards Banquet in October, Dr. Elizabeth Willis Jordan was honored as the 2019 Auburn Civitan Club Citizen of the Year.

Dr. Jordan of Auburn, better known as Betsy, has devoted a lifetime to helping others, especially youth in the Auburn–Opelika area. She is a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, has three degrees from Auburn University including the DVM, and practiced veterinary medicine in Florida. She returned to her alma mater in 1995 and worked for six years in the AU College of Veterinary Medicine. She and her husband, Scott, have two teenage daughters, Elizabeth and Emmalee.

Betsy is a Master Gardener volunteer and has given back countless hours of community volunteer work. She helped establish a Junior 4–H Club at Richland Road Elementary School and was instrumental in getting donations to create a large, outdoor raised bed teaching garden for the school. She was the force behind the creation of the History Seekers 4–H Club. For more than eight years as an adult volunteer 4–H leader, she has guided this group of young people and their parents through award–winning projects that range from the 4–H Chick Chain program to public speaking, storytelling, photography, gardening, pioneer life, and a unique sweet potato project that has raised more than $7,400 for the local Community Market and donated hundreds of volunteer hours for the Market. Betsy has been the organizer, director, coordinator, and chief executive officer for one of the most unique 4–H projects in the state for the past three years, the Back in Time holiday dinner theater celebrating Alabama’s Centennial. Proceeds from the event are donated to the Lee County Historical Society. As a community leader, she has recruited volunteers, donations, inspiration, and enthusiasm to make this a community event with focus on the young people.