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

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

titleholder from Gering, Nebraska 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. Steffany Lien of Lincoln was crowned Miss Nebraska 2022 on June 11, 2022 at North Platte HS Performing Arts Cen ...

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 Arts ...

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 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

since Bette Cooper in 1937.American Experience: Miss America
/ref> She now works as a business litigation attorney at King & Spalding in Houston, Texas, and serves as a Staff Sargeant in the Wyoming Air National Guard, in the Force Support Squadron.

Biography

Scanlan is of

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

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, surnames are generally patronymic in etymology but are no longer literal patronyms as, for example, most Icelandic names still are. The form of a surname varies ...

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

Ilovik The islands of Ilovik ( it, Asinello) and '' Sveti Petar'' ( it, San Pietro) are located in Croatia south of the island Lošinj (Lussino), separated by the Strait of Ilovik ( hr, Ilovačka vrata). Geography The only village located on the islan ...

, 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 the United States, Armenia, and the Philippines to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is tr ...

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 Christian college located in Purcellville, Virginia. Its departments teach classical liberal arts, government, strategic intelligence in national security, econ ...

. 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 federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...

as an Airman First Class, while continuing her education at

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

. She serves as a member of the

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

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 deman ...

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

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 as simply bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging or fasting, and excessive concern with body shape and weight. The aim of this activity is to expel the body of calories eaten ...

. 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

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

, 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 (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

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 2011 Miss America pageant, which was won by Miss Nebraska 2010 Teresa Scanlan. B ...

, for the title of

and was crowned by

Miss America 2010 Miss America 2010, the 83rd Miss America pageant, was held on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada at the Theatre for the Performing Arts of Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on Saturday, January 30, 2010. Miss America 2009, Katie Stam from ...

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

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 formerly run, since 1983, by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19. Unlike its sister pageants Miss Universe, which currently broadcasts on Fox and Miss USA, this pageant is webcast on th ...

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, 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 right ...

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