Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Cheryl Perich is an author, inventor, traveler, and spacecraft systems engineer. She earned her BS in mechanical engineering at Marquette University, and her MS in mechanical engineering at Cornell University. She was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship for her research which resulted in a patent. As a fulltime systems engineer, Cheryl has spent the last decade maintaining and upgrading nuclear technology, building and managing a reusable spaceplane for ISS resupply, and leading inspection teams for a space shuttle mission. In her spare time, she has enjoyed planting pineapples in the Matta Atlatica, Brazil, exchanging life skills with women in Morocco, and philosophizing with friends and family. Cheryl is currently living in Denver, Colorado.