The university has reestablished its Lyceum Leadership Speaker Series to promote and enhance the academic, cultural and aesthetic aspects of student growth and development. Through a series of intellectually stimulating lectures, this series will contribute to the establishment of a wholesome and well-rounded environment for the university and the local community.

The series will commence on Thursday, August 28 at 11 a.m. with featured speaker NC Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley.

Justice Cheri Beasley serves as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina since being appointed in 2012. Prior to her service on the Supreme Court, Justice Beasley served for four years on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, where she was the first African-American woman elected statewide without the benefit of incumbency by virtue of a gubernatorial appointment. Justice Beasley also served as a District Court Judge in Cumberland County for 10 years.

Justice Beasley holds memberships in a host of professional and civic organizations to include the American Bar Association/Appellate Judicial Division, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Cumberland County Bar Association and the Wake County Bar Association.

She earned her B.A. in political science and economics from Rutgers University/Douglass College. She earned her juris doctorate from The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, spending one semester of study abroad at the University of Oxford, England.

The Lyceum Leadership Speaker Series will continue each month on the fourth Thursday of each month at 11 a.m. The next featured speaker will be Congressman David E. Price on September 25.