Cheryl Cotton is a lively and tenacious woman with strong roots in the South Memphis community. Ms. Cotton is the proud daughter of Gerald Fianon, a leader in the civil rights movement and a crucial figure during the sanitation strike. Ms. Cotton took an active role in this movement alongside her father as a young teenager in the 1960s. Upon graduation from Booker T Washington high school, she pursued an education in divinity in Boston. Later, she returned to Memphis where she worked successfully as an educator in a variety of environments. Ms. Cotton has lived an exciting and service-driven life. She met the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie in the 1970s, and has helped many Memphians get a second-chance at a good education as a GED instructor. She is a wonderful example to young people and the Crossroads interns could not stop talking about how much they enjoyed their time with her.