From the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the influential corridors of media and publishing, Cheryl Cross stands as a beacon for change. Passionate about reshaping the trajectory for veterans and military spouses in their career transitions, Cheryl has elevated the narrative through her groundbreaking podcast platform, her book(s), and now, through executive and retained search.

A celebrated workforce development SME and a tireless advocate for Mil2Civ career transitions, Cheryl brings insights harvested from over two decades in HR.

Cheryl’s career started in her hometown of Las Vegas, NV, as a radio broadcaster and music director at leading radio stations, later in the music promotion department of Geffen Records, and as a media and marketing manager at Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings in Los Angeles, CA. With the growth of the internet, she partnered with a small analytics firm and provided competitive business intelligence to the financial services and capital markets industries. Cheryl’s HR career started when an RPO company hired her to streamline their research arm for their recruiting teams. There, she learned the power of connecting people to the jobs they love.

In 2005, Cheryl became an independent consultant who blended her love of marketing, communications, and recruiting to help companies fully formulate impactful strategies to attract, hire, and retain top talent. She worked with extensive financial services, energy, medical, and biotech firms in California.

In 2016, Booz Allen Hamilton hired her as a contractor to support their West Coast operations. On completing the project, she was hired full-time and moved to their Indo-Pacific division in Honolulu, HI, where she served as a senior growth strategist and talent acquisition specialist from 2017–2022.

In 2022, Cheryl returned to independent consulting. She was nominated by Hawaii Governor David Ige and confirmed by the Hawaii State Senate to serve as a Workforce Development Councilwoman for a four-year term, 2022-2026. Her clients included Booz Allen Hamilton, Ko-ya Marriott Ohana, LLC, and small businesses in the DOD contracting space. In 2024, she was invited to join the legacy executive search firm Inkinen as an executive search consultant. She continues her civic service as an executive board member for the State of Hawaii Workforce Development Council and past president and current board member of The Organization of Women Leaders Hawaii on Oahu.

Recently, Cheryl released her first book, “CIVILIAN MISSION: The Three-Year Guide for Military Professionals Planning Civilian Careers," where she decodes the intricacies of the Mil2Civ career transition phases with an emphasis on early planning—three years, to be exact. She is also the host of The Military to Civilian Career Transition Power Hour on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, where she aims to ’lift the voices of 100 transitioning veterans’ to bring awareness to the tricky landscape of Mil2Civ career transition. She is penning her next book, “Unlocking Your Worth: Salary Negotiation for Veterans.”

Cheryl is a leading voice in the Military-to-Civilian Career Transition space and a champion for businesses to create unique and specialized military-affiliated hiring programs. She is a go-to speaker, Cheryl A. Cross, and an energetic advocate on many topics, including hiring, negotiation, niche recruiting, workforce development, and executive search.