Tamela Woods Merriweather, C'2001

Tamela Merriweather has built a distinguished career at the intersection of law, business, and leadership.

As Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at The Northern Trust Company, Tamela leads Global Capital Markets Legal for the Americas, advising on some of the financial services industry’s most complex and consequential businesses, including securities finance, repo, foreign exchange, derivatives, and global regulatory matters.

Her leadership extends well beyond her role at Northern Trust. Tamela is President-Elect of the National Association of Women Lawyers and serves on the Executive Committee of the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Society. She is a founding board member of ISLA Americas and has held leadership roles with the Risk Management Association’s Securities Lending Council.

A passionate advocate for leadership, professional excellence, and the advancement of women in the legal profession, Tamela has been recognized with Markets Media Group’s Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Legal and NAWL’s Virginia S. Mueller Outstanding Member Award.

Beyond her professional life, Tamela is deeply committed to family, community, and service. She is a Girl Scout troop leader for her daughter’s Juniors Troop and the proud mother of two children who keep her and her husband busy cheering from the sidelines of youth sports. Her husband, a Morehouse man, has been her partner in this journey since their undergraduate days, a partnership that has been a constant source of strength and joy throughout her career.

A native of Southern California, Tamela has called Chicago home for the past 20 years and now lives in Chicago’s western suburbs. Her career and life have taken her far from where she began, but her grounding in family, community, and service has remained constant.

Tamela’s career is distinguished not only by what she has achieved, but by how she leads: with purpose, authenticity, and a commitment to opening doors for those who come behind her. Her journey is a powerful testament to the possibilities created when undaunted faith, exceptional talent, dogged perseverance, and humble service converge.