Cheryl D. Orr

Cheryl Orr retired from Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) as the vice president of human capital, where she was responsible for the Human Resources functions. She has spent over 25 years working in human resources as an assistant director and subsequently director/vice president. She has worked for a small business as its HR VP in a university setting and held several HR executive positions in local governments in Virginia and Texas. The city of Dallas hired Cheryl to establish its Ethics and Diversity program under the auspices of the City Manager. In all her HR positions, Cheryl has constantly assumed an EEO/Diversity role and responsibilities.

Cheryl is a proficient human resources practitioner who has taught personnel practices at the university level and re-engineered several human resources offices that required a “facelift.” For many years, she has served on boards and committees supporting public administration and HR practitioners and is currently serving a term on the IPMA-HR Texas Chapter Board of Directors.

Cheryl is a prolific trainer, speaker, facilitator, and consultant on various workplace subjects. She is a sought-after speaker on issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion. She co-authored an article entitled “Women of Color: The Path to Equity in the Public Sector: Ensuring that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion remain leading workforce values” (10/1/20) for ICMA’s Public Manager’s magazine, and volunteers to teach women about financial management. She received the Ebby Halliday Volunteer of the year award in 2018 from WINGS. Cheryl is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Institute-NFBPA and the Senior Executive Institute at UVA, Charlottesville.

Cheryl holds a BA in Psychology from Rutgers University and an MSW from Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work. She also holds a certificate of Organizational Development from Georgetown University.