When Rebekka Freeman Terrell (’09) moved from Memphis across the state to attend the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she committed fully to being a Volunteer. Even when life threw her curveballs, she took them in stride and turned those challenges into learning experiences that ultimately grew her knowledge and skills.
It’s this pragmatism, grit, and a passion to never stop learning that culminated in her serving for the past three years as the chief administrative officer for the Shelby County Criminal Clerk’s Office. It’s also part of what earned the communication studies major a spot in the 2025 class of the Volunteer 40 Under 40.
Determined to graduate as a Vol
Moving so far away from her family for school was difficult but also instilled in her a confidence that she could be independent and navigate a new environment as an adult. Freeman Terrell immersed herself in college life and joined several organizations, including the Black Cultural Programming Committee, Orange Pride, and was inducted into Pi Lambda Eta—the School of Communication Studies’ Alpha Gamma chapter of the National Communication Association’s official honor society.
She initially chose the communication studies major as a placeholder so she could declare a major, but after the first few weeks of classes in the field, it was quickly cemented that she’d made the correct decision.
“I know my strengths and weaknesses; I’ve never been a math girlie, and science was fine, but I came into the college and immediately knew that this was my lane,” she recalled. “What I appreciated about CCI was that you could do almost anything with this degree and use it as a launch pad for whatever you wanted to do later. It was niche enough where it fit into my strengths, but broad enough that I could learn how to leverage it for what I wanted to do later.”
She was about to take on the last 30 hours of her degree when she became pregnant with her son, Gabriel, during the summer between her junior and senior years. Her parents begged her to move back home and finish out college in Memphis, but the then-senior was determined to finish what she started.
“I remember telling my parents on the phone, ‘Once a Vol always a Vol. I started here and I am going to graduate with a degree from UT.’,” she said.
Choosing a law career
Freeman Terrell did exactly what she set out to do and earned her undergraduate degree from UT in 2009. She gave birth five weeks before graduation and moved back home as she was undertaking the big task of parenting on her own and needed her family’s support. As young as she was, she wisely began to consider what career would best suit her new life as a parent and provider.
“I knew I had to do something so big and so amazing that it could support us,” she said. “I took a leap of faith and applied to University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law because nothing else called me like the law did. Kind of like communication—I wasn’t sure about my degree, but after a couple of weeks, I knew that this is exactly where I need to be, honing these skills, learning how to analyze, and making a positive impact for my community.”
Freeman Terrell credits her undergraduate studies with giving her a foundation in communication that made writing 50- or 100-page papers a much less formidable task than it might be for someone without a strong communications background. Even with her advanced communication skills, going to law school full time while single-parenting, was challenging, so she decided to attend school part time. Again, she persevered and graduated after four years in law school, in 2014, and quickly got a job as an assistant district attorney at the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.
While she said law school taught her how to analyze and think through complex issues, it was being “thrown into the fire” of practicing the law in the real world where she earned a lot of experience. She deeply values the network of fellow lawyers and mentors she made during that time.
“My life philosophy and career philosophy is to never stop learning even if you already have a formal education. So, I threw myself in and tried to learn every little thing in the DA’s Office,” she said.
She was there for three years and during that time, she got married to her husband William. When his job required that they move, she resigned and moved with him. Eventually they made their way back to Memphis and that’s when her career took a unique turn. Freeman Terrell said her other career philosophy is to be open to opportunity, so rather than jump back into legal work she took a series of jobs in human resources. She worked as an employee relations advisor for Memphis-Shelby County Schools and then as an employee relations manager for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
“Three years ago I took my current job, and it ended up being a perfect meld of my HR and legal background because I didn’t stop learning. It’s been wonderful being back and directly in the court system,” she said.
While her position as chief administrative officer for Shelby County Criminal Clerk’s Office doesn’t require a law degree, her legal knowledge has been extremely valuable as she works with attorneys and judges in the system, she said. Her office is responsible for keeping all the court records and for collecting fees and fines, among a plethora of other responsibilities.
A community and public servant
A lot has changed for Freeman Terrell since she was a timid high school student starting her first semester at UT or as a freshly graduated new mother, and one of those changes is her understanding that the path to success isn’t linear.
“I like to say casually in terms of my career and success: if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready! If you continue to learn and ask questions and dig deeper, when opportunities arise, you’ll be ready for them,” she said, noting that anyone who feels discouraged in their current position should keep learning and persevering so they can be ready for those opportunities.
Outside of work, Freeman Terrell looks for ways to serve the communities she is in, which includes the city of Memphis as well as the legal community. She earned the Memphis Bar Journal’s “40 Under 40” award in 2024 and was recently accepted into the 2025 class of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Leadership Law program. She is on the board of directors for the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and the Association for Women Attorneys, and she is a part of the National Bar Association (Ben F. Jones Chapter), and the Memphis Bar Association—of which she was honored as foundation fellow in 2024.
She is very active with her volunteer work, which includes serving as a:
- member of Leadership Memphis in the 2024 Executive Program
- mentor for the Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mid-South chapter
- mentor for the UT Promise Scholarship
- member of the Junior League of Memphis
- board of directors for National Black Prosecutors Association, Western District of Tennessee
- member of the Memphis Grizzlies Foundation
- literacy coach for ARISE2Read
In addition to serving in those capacities, she volunteers with the Shelby County Youth Court program, where she works with high school children interested in the law and acts as a judge and mentor. She helps those students immerse themselves in a restorative justice program where other children who have been accused of real delinquency are diverted out of the juvenile system and into the Youth Court program. This benefits the high school students working in the program to see advocacy at work and the court in action, and it also benefits the delinquent children in the diversion program to have a second chance to turn their situation around, Terrell said.
Her volunteer work isn’t optional to her. Like many UT alumni, she started volunteering while she was a student at UT and lit the Volunteer spirit in her that she still carries today.
“To me, regardless of what someone’s story is regarding their road to success, they didn’t get there by themselves, so it’s important to me to continue working in my community. There’s no way as a single mom I could’ve done any of this without my village and mentors putting me in rooms and in various positions to succeed,” she said.
While she knows she’s put in the hard work and learning to be where she is today, she also honors the fact that she’s been helped along the way. Being on the Volunteer 40 Under 40 validates everything she’s done since she graduated in 2009, and she appreciates the university honoring that. Freeman Terrell said she was humbled to be included on a list that features so many other amazing Vols, and it has confirmed all the positive feelings she’s held for her alma mater over the years.