Teresa Michelle Scanlan (born February 6, 1993) is an American attorney and

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes sol ...

titleholder from

Gering, Nebraska Gering is a city in and the county seat of Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, United States, in the Panhandle region of the state. The population was 8,564 at the 2020 census, making it the 17th most populous city in Nebraska. History Gering ...

who was named

Miss Nebraska The Miss Nebraska competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Nebraska in the Miss America pageant. Raechel Warren was crowned Miss Nebraska 2024 on June 8, 2024 at North Platte HS Performing Arts Center in Nort ...

2010, subsequently winning

Miss America 2011 Miss America 2011 was the 84th Miss America pageant. Since the first Miss America pageant was held years ago, in 1921, the Miss America Organization was celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2011. It was held at the Theatre for the Performing Ar ...

at age 17 and becoming the youngest

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: ''Priva ...

since

Bette Cooper Elizabeth Cooper-Moore (August 11, 1920 – December 10, 2017) won the Miss America 1937 pageant as Bertrand Island, New Jersey, Miss Bertrand Island, representing an amusement park on Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey. Early life She was born in Hac ...

in 1937. She now works as a business litigation attorney at King & Spalding in Houston, Texas, and serves as a staff sergeant in the Wyoming Air National Guard, in the Force Support Squadron. https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresascanlan

Biography

Scanlan is of Irish and Croatian ancestry. Her father is from Ireland (Scanlan is an

Irish surname A formal Irish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the Irish language, most surnames are patronymic surnames (distinct from patronymic, patronyms, which are seen in Icelandic names for example). The form of a surname varies according ...

) and her maternal grandparents, Frank and Nives Jelich (Jelić), immigrated to the United States from

Ilovik The islands of Ilovik and Sveti Petar are located in Croatia south of the island Lošinj, separated by the Strait of Ilovik (). Geography The only village located on the island of Ilovik is also called Ilovik. The circumference of the island ...

, Croatia. Scanlan was home-schooled until her junior year of high school, before attending Gering High School part-time for half of her junior year. She graduated early from Scottsbluff High School in the spring of 2010 after taking a double load of classes throughout high school. Teresa was named a

Salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in Armenia, the Philippines, Canada, Afghanistan and the United States to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. ...

for the Scottsbluff class of 2010. While at Scottsbluff High School, she played the lead role Sharpay Evans in ''Disney's High School Musical Onstage''. She also participated in choir, show choir, and speech. In 2012, she enrolled as a student at

Patrick Henry College Patrick Henry College (PHC) is a private liberal arts non-denominational conservative Protestant Christian college located in Purcellville, Virginia. Its departments teach classical liberal arts, government, strategic intelligence in national se ...

. In her spare time, Scanlan enjoys singing, acting, dancing, playing piano and guitar, composing songs, baking, participating in activities with her local church, and making clothes out of duct tape, among many other hobbies. In 2018, Scanlan announced she had joined the

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

as an Airman First Class, while continuing her education at

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was ...

. She serves as a member of the

Wyoming Air National Guard The Wyoming Air National Guard (WY ANG) is the aerial militia of the Wyoming, State of Wyoming, United States, United States of America. It is, along with the Wyoming Army National Guard, an element of the Wyoming National Guard, National Guard (U ...

in the 153rd Force Support Squadron. Scanlan graduated from her

basic combat training Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique dema ...

class in the top 10%. In 2021, Scanlan graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law and joined King & Spalding as a business litigation attorney in their Houston, Texas office.

Pageants

Miss Nebraska 2010 She won the title of

2010 on June 5, 2010, when she received her crown from outgoing titleholder Brittany Jeffers. Scanlan's platform is “Eating Disorders: A Generation at Risk.” Scanlan's passion to combat eating disorders stems from a friend who struggled with

bulimia Bulimia nervosa, also known simply as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating (eating large quantities of food in a short period of time, often feeling out of control) followed by compensatory behaviors, such as self-induc ...

. Scanlan did research about eating disorders for her friend and discovered how rampant it was across the nation. She hopes to educate children and adults alike as to the signs and risks of eating disorders, as well as how and where to get help for themselves or a loved one. Her competition talent was piano. At 17 years of age, she is the youngest Miss Nebraska ever crowned. After winning the title of

2010, Scanlan announced that she was taking a year off from school to fulfill her duties as

2010, and that she had deferred enrollment to

until the fall of 2011. Miss America 2011 Scanlan was Nebraska's representative at the

competition held in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

in January 2011. Her platform for the national pageant was "Eating Disorders: A Generation at Risk." In the preliminary competition, Scanlan won the talent portion and a $2,000 scholarship for her piano performance of "White Water Chop Sticks." Scanlan beat out first runner-up Miss Arkansas 2010,

Alyse Eady Alyse Cynthia Eady (born March 15, 1988) is an American news anchor and beauty pageant titleholder who was Miss Arkansas 2010. Eady was named first runner-up at the Miss America, Miss America 2011 pageant, which was won by Miss Nebraska 2010 Tere ...

, for the title of

and was crowned by Miss America 2010

Caressa Cameron Caressa Venal Cameron-Jackson (born August 4, 1987) is an American beauty pageant titleholder and occasional singer from Fredericksburg, Virginia who was Miss Virginia 2009 and Miss America 2010. She is the eighth African American Miss America ...

on January 15, 2011. With this win she became the first Miss Nebraska ever to claim the Miss America title, as well as the youngest winner in 74 years. Along with the title of Miss America, she also won a $50,000 scholarship. Furthermore, Scanlan was the first titleholder from Nebraska to win

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020. ...

, or

Miss Teen USA Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant that has been run since 1983 by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19 years old as of January 1st of the competition year. They must be US citizens, and cannot have been married, pregnant, or ...

Personal life

On September 6, 2015, Scanlan married Connecticut automobile dealer John Mocadlo, after being engaged for eight months. Mocadlo and Scanlan served

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

for the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Organization within the

program. In 2016, Scanlan and her husband had a son, and divorced later that same year.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scanlan, Teresa Miss America 2011 delegates 1993 births Living people People from Gering, Nebraska American beauty pageant winners Miss America Preliminary Talent winners Miss America winners United States Air Force airmen Patrick Henry College alumni UC Berkeley School of Law alumni American people of Irish descent American people of Croatian descent