Terri Bennett

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Terri Bennett has one of the most recognizable faces in Charlotte.

For 16 years, she was the on-air face of the weather for WSOC-TV and WCNC-TV, but in 2007, she faced a turning point when WCNC did not renew her contract.

Instead of caving in to rejection, she was energized.

Believing in her passion for the environment and her ability to convey that passion to people around her, she started Terri Bennett Enterprises and Do Your Part, a media company dedicated to providing credible content about all things green.

“I started Terri Bennett Enterprises so I could continue doing what I love – making science easy to understand,” she says.

Bennett has been building her career since her college days.

After graduating from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology, she headed off to KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Iowa to start her award-winning career as a weather broadcaster.

Over the years, she racked up two Emmy Awards for Weather Coverage, three awards as “Best Weathercaster in the Carolinas,” and other accolades. But of all her honors, she is most proud of the American

Meteorological Society’s award for Excellence in Science Reporting by a Broadcast Meteorologist.

This prestigious award recognized “Waterwise,” a weekly segment Bennett produced about water issues in the Charlotte region.

Today Bennett is still a media professional, writing a weekly newspaper column for McClatchy Tribune Information Services. She maintains a popular website, doyourpart.com, and her weekly video segments can be seen on News 14 across the Carolinas.

She recently published her first book, “Do Your Part: A Guide to Everyday Green Living.”

“I love making science easy to understand. I also love teaching people about the environment and our connection to it,” she says. “We all know that weather affects us every day. That works both ways. We impact our planet through our choices, and we can make smarter choices that are both better for our families and the planet.”

Along the way, she has learned never to pass up an opportunity, and she has learned she can’t solve all the problems of the world.

There is one phrase she uses too often, and she is diligently trying to change the words and the attitude that goes along with it.

“That phrase is: ‘It’s not my problem, and I embrace it,’” she says. “For many years, I tried to fix everything and everyone’s problems. Now older and wiser, I have learned that I can’t control everything or how others act. I can only change how I respond.”

Now she simply says: ‘It’s not my problem.’”

For Bennett, satisfaction is being happy with what she has. Her family means everything to her, and she counts being a good mom as her greatest personal accomplishment.

Through career ups and downs, rejection and success, Bennett has learned the satisfaction of calling her own shots and living life on her own terms.