First Lady Mary Easley

First Lady Mary Easley’s main initiatives are preventing and reducing underage drinking, assisting military families, and promoting and supporting the arts.

Mrs. Easley serves as one of four national co-chairs of The Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, a unique coalition of Governors’ spouses, federal agencies, and public and private organizations that engages public policy makers and opinion leaders, nationally, to raise awareness about the risks associated with childhood alcohol use.  As part of this initiative, she travels throughout North Carolina addressing schools, professional organizations, alcohol prevention coalitions, parent organizations, and volunteer groups.  In early 2007, Mrs. Easley joined the Acting Surgeon General in Washington, D.C. to announce a national “Call to Action to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking.”

As the home state of six major military installations, North Carolina’s military families have been hit hard with deployments.  Mrs. Easley has focused on the needs of the children of those families.  She is working with the N.C. National Guard and the Military Child Education Coalition on the Living in the New Normal initiative, which fosters efforts to support military children and provides educators with information on supporting children during times of uncertainty, trauma and grief.  Mrs. Easley has also partnered with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing company, to have thousands of books donated every year to military children and attends workshops sponsored by the N.C. National Guard Family Readiness Program to encourage program volunteers.

The First Lady works with numerous museums, organizations and festivals that celebrate and support the diverse and dynamic culture of the arts in North Carolina.  She works extensively with the N.C. Museum of Art to bring world-renowned exhibits to the state museum.  She is honorary chair of the museum’s campaign steering committee and is actively involved with the Carolina Ballet, N.C. Symphony, and American Dance Festival in Durham.  Through numerous events and speaking engagements, Mrs. Easley serves as a proponent for the N.C. Arts Council, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and N.C. Museum of History.  She also serves on the Communities in Schools Board of Directors to help schools get the community resources they need to help students learn, stay in school and prepare for life.

Mrs. Easley is currently employed by North Carolina State University as Executive in Residence in the Office of the Provost with the rank of Senior Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.  She also teaches Legal Aspects of Police Supervision at N.C. State University’s Administrative Officer’s Management Program, a graduate level management course for police executives from throughout the United States.  She has lectured on numerous topics related to trial advocacy at North Carolina Universities, has been a regular faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and has taught various continuing legal education courses within the state.

She received her bachelor’s degree in politics from Wake Forest University in 1972 where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.  She was also a member of the Fideles Society.  She received her Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest School of Law in 1975, where was a member of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

After law school, she served as Assistant District Attorney in New Hanover and Pender counties for ten years where she prosecuted hundreds of cases before North Carolina juries.  From 1984 to 1992, she maintained her own practice in the areas of civil and criminal law in Southport, N.C.

Mary and Mike Easley have been married for 26 years and have one child, Michael Jr., age 22.