2025 Community Leaders of the Year: Teresa Metcalf Beasley

If Teresa Metcalf Beasley is on a board for an organization, everyone around her knows that she is going to use her voice. And to her, that is a compliment. 

Her voice extends beyond making decisions and advocating for issues on the board that impact the community. It also includes nominating future leaders who will continue their mission of aiding the community.

Beasley, a native of East Cleveland, has served on boards for Playhouse Square, DigitalC, University Hospitals, Karamu House and plenty more. For Karamu House, Beasley had the opportunity to nominate three future board members and the current chair, Tamara Horne.

“It’s always about giving back. It’s about bringing others along and helping others,” Beasley says. “And when I have an opportunity to put someone on a board, nominate someone, I do it.”

Early in her 30-year career as an attorney, Beasley learned that meaningful board service required being actively engaged, doing the work and using her voice in the boardrooms, especially if she was going to keep doing it.

“When you’re on the boards, you have to do the work, and people see you doing the work. That’s how you get involved in other boards,” Beasley says. “One person did say, ‘Well, if we invite her to the board, she’s going to use her voice.’ I thought, That’s perfect because yes, I will. To me, that was a compliment.”

As a Black woman and leader, Beasley emphasizes the importance of using her voice and encouraging others to speak up to ensure that diverse perspectives are represented in important decisions that impact the community.

“It’s important because oftentimes my voice is not at the table as a Black female,” she says. “We aren’t at so many tables, but yet this board may be making decisions that impact me or my community or people who look like me.”

That’s why Beasley is proud of her work for DigitalC, which has connected thousands of low-income households to affordable internet, and her influence on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s board to increase opportunities for minority contractors as key examples of her community impact.

Beasley is the current chair of the public law practice group and civic engagement and community relations at McDonald Hopkins. Those who know her know that she is not doing this to further her career but because she feels bound to giving back. 

“It’s not that you’re supposed to become so successful in your life that you can’t help others,” Beasley expresses.

“And to me, that’s what’s really important,” she says. “That’s why I say to myself, I’m expected to serve, and I do.”  

For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.

Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.