The bar advertised the position nationally and received about 100 applications, Sheffey said. "We reached out far and wide—and ended up with someone in our own backyard."
Sheffey said Beck's collaborative approach to leadership was one reason the Atlanta Bar chose her as O'Steen's successor.
"She is focused on the team, the culture and collegiality. That is an incredibly strong quality that Terri brings to the bar to work with the staff, the board and our members," Sheffey said. "I think she is going to be a wonderful ambassador for the bar."
Beck has been the executive director of the Atlanta chapter of Everybody Wins! for 13 years, joining only two years after its launch.
The Atlanta Bar Association became a partner to the nonprofit a year later.
"Over the course of my tenure as executive director here, I have been working with the legal community. It has been a mainstay of the funding and volunteer support of this organization," Beck said.
One of the nonprofit's biggest programs, Power Lunch, pairs students reading below grade level with volunteer mentors who read to them. Beck said lawyers make up a large percentage of the local group's 1,000 volunteer reading mentors.
'Living lawyers for a long time'
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton houses the nonprofit's office, she added. "I've been living lawyers for a long time."
Everybody Wins! started in 1991 in New York and has affiliates in 14 cities. Beck said the Atlanta chapter is the third-largest, after New York and Washington.
She has expanded the group's work over her tenure. Everybody Wins! Atlanta served 75 children in 1999. Last year it served 2,600 children from 13 schools. "It would take something special to have me leave this position," Beck said. "Diane O'Steen's departure will be the first transition for the bar in almost three decades, so having the position come open was a really unique situation."
