Commencement Speaker

The Honorable Justice Cheri Beasley, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, will serve as the College of Law’s commencement speaker during the ceremony on May 10.

Beasley has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina since 2012, becoming the second African American woman to sit on the state’s highest court in its nearly 200-year history. She served as an associate judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as a District Court Judge in Cumberland County. She also has lectured at area law schools and national and regional conferences on leadership, criminal and civil law, and trial and appellate advocacy.

Beasley travels extensively nation wide, as well as to Europe, Egypt, and the Caribbean to promote the rule of law and the administration of justice and the importance of an independent judiciary and fair judicial selection. She has presented nationally on the analysis of Miranda rights for juveniles and taught Court Management for Assistants Heads of Courts as part of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Cairo, Egypt.

She is a graduate of Douglass College of Rutgers University and the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Beasley is currently a student at Duke University School of Law completing an LLM in judicial studies. She and her husband, Curtis Owens, are the proud parents of twin sons, Thomas and Matthew, 17-year-old high school seniors. They are members of First Baptist Church of Raleigh, where Beasley serves on the Board of Trustees.