Cheryl is a third-culture kid who grew up between the United States, Singapore, and China. Her experience living abroad contributes to her global worldview and deep curiosity and longing to make a difference. Her passions lie in community development, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement. An urban planner by training, she believes in the power of participatory design in every process. ​​
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Previously based in New York, Cheryl was a project manager at a mission-driven urban planning consulting firm, working with public sector clients like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), New York City Economic Development (NYCEDC), and the New York City Department of Design & Construction (NYCDDC), private sector clients, and non-profit clients. ​
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At ThinkPlace, Cheryl’s key skill sets lie at the intersection between urban planning, research, placemaking, and community development. She has completed an ethnographic research study on the gig economy with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, facilitated community engagement projects like the Celebrating Families Plan engagement for the Ministry of Social & Family Development and North South Corridor-wide engagement for NParks, and designed and facilitated a Citizens’ Panel for the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) around employment resilience. Her other notable clients include the Institute of Policy Studies, NParks, Ministry of Health (MOH), Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), and the Municipal Services Office (MSO). She currently leads the Tampines West Upgrading Placemaking community engagement project with the People’s Association and regularly delivers design thinking and innovation consulting services for IMDA.

Cheryl holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University and Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of California, San Diego.