Hi, I’m Cheryl!

I grew up in a house with one unspoken rule — what happens here stays here.

By thirteen, I had survived childhood sexual abuse, delivered a daughter alone in a hospital room, and testified in a courtroom against the man who violated me. I did all of it without a single person unconditionally in my corner.

I survived anyway.

For years I carried what I had been taught to keep hidden. But what I also carried was determination — and eventually, I found my voice.

That journey — from silence to purpose — is what drives everything I do today. As an author, speaker, and advocate, I speak to inspire others to change the narrative. I speak from lived experience — and that changes the room.

My debut memoir, Still Standing: From Silence to Purpose, is the book it took eight years to write — because healing had to happen before telling was possible.

It no longer feels safer to be silent. And I am just getting started.