Advisory Board

Terri Dean
Advisory Board Chair
Retired, Sr. Vice President - Global Communications
Verizon Business

Terri Dean retired in October 2008 as the senior vice president of global communications for Verizon Business, a provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to enterprise businesses and governments around the world. Over the course of her career at Verizon, she held positions of increasing responsibility, acquiring expertise in finance, marketing, sales, operations, corporate philanthropy, and internal and external communications. Since her retirement, Terri has volunteered in a number of capacities, most recently to lead the Post-Secondary Readiness Strategies Team under the direction of Mayor Michael Nutter’s Chief Academic Officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her team has been charged with identifying high impact strategies for execution by interdependent entities focused on creating pathways to college. In addition, the outcome of their work will be the creation of a city-wide college-going culture.

Terri has been honored by the Harlem Branch of the YMCA with its “Black Achiever in Industry Award” for her career accomplishments. She is a recipient of the Chatham College Cornerstone Award for Excellence in Business and a regional Citizenship Award presented to her by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., of which she is a member. For a five year period, she represented Verizon as the Executive Sponsor for the Atlanta University Center and created and led an outreach initiative that resulted in Verizon hiring over sixty undergraduate and graduate students from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College.

In recognition for her accomplishments as a successful corporate communications executive, Terri was the subject of a case study entitled “Communicating with an Enterprise Perspective” that was taught with her in attendance in August 2009 at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. She has been featured in print publications including the National Black MBA magazine and in a special edition of Profiles in Diversity Journal as “A Woman Worth Watching.” She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, an organization representing the most senior African American corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies. Terri is the vice chair of the Board of Visitors of the Divinity School at Duke University. In addition, she serves as vice president of strategy and execution for the Board of Directors of The Ivy Legacy Foundation, as chair of the Trustee Ministry at Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Germantown, and as chair of the Advisory Board of the Ron Brown Scholar Program.

Terri Dean received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband, Rick. They are the parents of two daughters, one a public relations professional in Washington, D.C. and the other a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.