Cheryl L. Shavers (born December 26, 1953, San Marcos, Texas) is an American chemist, engineer, and businesswoman.

[1] Shavers' mother, Erna Mae Caldwell, was a maid, who brought her and her sister up alone in South Phoenix in financial hardship.

Watching the police investigators at the scene gave her the ambition of working in forensic science, which required a chemistry degree.

[2] She transferred to the Bachelor of Science program at the Arizona State University, majoring in chemistry and paying for tuition by working at night in a data processing center.

[2] When the lab director reassigned her to menial tasks a few months short of completing her degree, she resigned in distress and changed career course.

[2] However, she found the work boring, and decided to go back to science and technology, taking an entry-level managerial position in the diode microelectronics lab at the Wilton company.

[11] Video of Cheryl L. Shaver's induction into the Women in Technology Information (WITI) Hall of Fame (with her baby daughter) on YouTube.