Betsy Brew, MD, FACS

About Betsy

Dr. Elizabeth “Betsy” Brew is a board-certified general and trauma surgeon, with a specialty in breast surgery. Dr. Brew splits her time between the Roaring Fork Valley and Colorado’s Front Range. At Valley View, she serves patients of the Breast Center, Calaway·Young Cancer Center and Mt. Sopris Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center, working closely with reconstructive surgeon Dr. Jennifer Butterfield.

Dr. Brew, a native of Northern California, earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from Dartmouth. Her post-baccalaureate academics took her to the University of California Santa Cruz for pre-med studies, then medical school at the Dartmouth/Brown Program in Medicine and residency at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Among other associations, she is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons and member of the Association of Women Surgeons and American Society of Breast Surgeons.

Her niche in her chosen specialty, breast surgery, has evolved over her two-and-a-half-decade career. Her affinity for caring for women, then specifically for treating women who are challenged by breast cancer, has been as gratifying as it has been successful.

“I get to know my patients really well,” she says. “It’s a lifetime relationship that develops.” Not only that, but the collegial relationship and the synergy between the radiologist, oncologists and plastic surgeon are especially rewarding to Dr. Brew. Regarded by some as a pioneer, Dr. Brew began her practice at a time when relatively few women specialized in general surgery. “I was lucky. The time I spent in residency, six out of eight were women. I came through in this sweet spot of having a lot of women around me. We all got treated equally badly whether male or female,” she says with a laugh. “It was, and is, gender equal. Now, female general surgeons are kind of ordinary.”

Dr. Brew was drawn to Colorado because of her geology education and training. “It’s the greatest college major in the world,” she says. “It’s all about the field trips!” Dr. Brew and her husband Bob have three young adult children, whom she had when in residency. Like their mother, they enjoy the outdoors and work in the recreation industry in Utah, Montana and Colorado. When Dr. Brew isn’t caring for patients, she’s likely hiking, biking or skiing. “I’m a happy Colorado person.”