Our Speaker For the Event

Justice Cheri Beasley

With a judicial career spanning 19 years, Justice Cheri Beasley has shaped the jurisprudence of the State of North Carolina and is known as a fair and experienced jurist. She 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. Justice Beasley served as an associate judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and as a District Court Judge in Cumberland County. She has lectured at area law schools and national and regional conferences on leadership, criminal and civil law, and trial and appellate advocacy. She travels extensively nationwide, 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. Specifically, Justice Beasley has presented nationally on the analysis of Mirandarights for juveniles. She is a graduate of Douglass College of Rutgers University and The University of Tennessee College of Law. Justice Beasley recently earned an L.L.M. in Judicial Studies at Duke University School of Law. Justice Beasley and her husband Curtis Owens are the proud parents of twin sons, Thomas and Matthew, who are college freshmen. They are members of First Baptist Church, Raleigh where Justice Beasley serves on the Board of Trustees.