She grew up on a farm and ranch in Walters, Oklahoma as the youngest of four daughters who spent their summers harvesting wheat with the family out on the Great Plains. Cheryl initially attended Oklahoma City University and majored in journalism before transferring during her junior year to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. There, she graduated summa cum laude, was named the Outstanding Graduate in the Division of Political Science and Public Administration, and she received a Rotary Foundation International Scholarship. She used that scholarship to obtain a degree in international history and politics at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs in Geneva, Switzerland. Upon returning to the United States, Cheryl obtained a law degree at Columbia University School of Law in New York.