Cheryl D. Alston is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas, Texas (“ERF”), a $3.3+ billion pension plan for the City’s civilian employees. Cheryl began her term in October 2004 and provides leadership for the Fund’s staff in implementing the programs necessary to achieve the mission, goals and objectives established by the Board of Trustees.
Cheryl serves on the Board of CHRISTUS Health, an international faith based health care system and is chair of the Finance and Strategy committee. She also serves on the board of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, and Mercy Health.
In 2011, Cheryl was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Advisory Committee and served two terms. The PBGC protects the retirement incomes of more than 44 million American workers in 27,500 private-sector defined benefit plans and has $80+ billion in assets. She also serves on several non-profit boards and foundations including the Dallas Women’s Foundation, Texas Wall Street Women and VolunteerNow.
Cheryl has over twenty-five years of expertise in the financial services industry. She served as an Executive with CIGNA Retirement & Investment Services. Prior to CIGNA, Cheryl has served as a Corporate Banking Officer at Chase Global Services, providing investment banking services for Fortune 500 clients. Cheryl has an M.B.A. in Finance from the Leonard N. Stern School at New York University and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Dallas Assembly, Dallas Summit and the International Women’s Forum Dallas.