
Cherryl T. Thomas, Arts ’68, was elected to the Marquette University Board of Trustees in 2003.
She is president of Ardmore Associates, an engineering consulting firm specializing in infrastructure, transportation, and construction management.
Previously, she served as chair of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, an independent agency in the executive branch of the federal government from 1998 to 2003. Thomas had worked for the City of Chicago, beginning as a research chemist for the Department of Water and then serving in a number of executive capacities: director of management services for the Department of Aviation from 1983 to 1989, director of personnel policy and utilization for the Department of Water from 1989 to 1992, deputy chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley from 1992 to 1994, and commissioner of the Department of Buildings from 1994 to 1998.
She is a commissioner on Chicago’s Zoning Reform Commission and serves on the boards of trustees for Loyola University Chicago, the Chicago Zoological Society, the Cultural Center Foundation, the Chicago Public Library and After School Matters.
She received the Distinguished Alumna Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2002. She holds a master’s degree in physiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an honorary doctor of public administration degree from Boston College.