In December 2012, Justice Cheri Beasley received an appointment from Governor Beverly Perdue to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Prior to this appointment, Justice Beasley served as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals to which she was elected in 2008. She is the only African-American woman elected to any statewide office in North Carolina without the benefit of incumbency or appointment by the Governor. She served for nearly ten years as a District Court Judge in the Twelfth Judicial District, Cumberland County, appointed by Governor Jim Hunt in 1999 and subsequently elected and reelected. Justice Beasley served as a Family Court Judge, a certified Juvenile Court Judge and presided in criminal, traffic and civil matters.
She lectured at New District Court Judges School at UNC-CH School of Government, lectured for law enforcement and other court personnel, was on the faculty of National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and lectures for Appellate Advocacy and Trial Advocacy classes at UNC School of Law and NCCU School of Law. Justice Beasley holds memberships in the American Bar Association, Appellate Judicial Division, N.C. Bar Association (serving on several committees), Cumberland County Bar Association, Wake County Bar Association, Zeta Pi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Junior League of Fayetteville (former director). Justice Beasley is a 2012 Henry Toll Fellow of the Council on State Governments.
In December 1991, Justice Beasley graduated from The University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville after completing a summer of law studies at Oxford University in England. She is a graduate of Douglass College of Rutgers University with majors in Economics and Political Science. From 1994 to 1999, Justice Beasley served as an Assistant Public Defender in the Twelfth Judicial District. She is married to Curtis Owens who is a clinical research scientist. They are the proud parents of twin sons, Thomas and Matthew, who are rising eighth graders. They are members of First Baptist Church, South Wilmington Street, Raleigh, where Rev. Dr. Dumas A. Harshaw, Jr. is pastor. Their home church is First Baptist Church, Moore Street, Fayetteville where Rev. Dr. Cureton Johnson is Pastor. Justice Beasley is the only child of the late Dr. Lou Beasley and the late William James Beasley.