Who Is Cheri Bergeron?
Cheri Bergeron is an Amazon #1 bestselling author, keynote speaker, nonprofit founder, and IVF advocate who helps women proactively plan for motherhood on their own terms. A former senior marketing executive with leadership roles at IBM and global technology companies, she is the founder and CEO of Cheri’s Choice, a nonprofit that provides education, counseling, and community support for women pursuing diverse, intentional paths to motherhood, including IVF, surrogacy, donor conception, solo motherhood, foster parenting, and adoption. Based in Austin, Texas, she is a single mother of two and a leading voice redefining modern family-building and choice.
A Turning Point That Changed Everything
There are moments in life when the question “Why is this happening to me?” becomes impossible to ignore. For Cheri Bergeron, that moment arrived not in a boardroom or on a career stage, but in the middle of a deeply personal legal battle, one that threatened the family she had fought for, planned for, and built on her own. After more than a decade navigating infertility, nontraditional family-building, and profound loss, Cheri found herself facing a custody dispute that defied logic and fairness.
In what she describes as a moment of total surrender, clarity followed.
“You’re going through this so you can help other women become mothers,” she recalls.
That realization transformed pain into purpose, and marked the beginning of a public mission that would redefine her life’s work.
A Career Built on Strategy, Leadership, and Results
Long before Cheri became a leading voice in the motherhood-by-choice movement, she was already a proven executive. With a foundation in marketing and business strategy, she built a formidable career spanning IBM, Borland, Digital.ai, and multiple high-growth technology companies.
At IBM, Cheri spent more than nine years in senior leadership roles, including Marketing Leader for IBM Global Elite, where she served top-tier clients representing more than $2 billion in annual revenue. Known for her strategic clarity and ability to mobilize world-class teams, she led global initiatives across cloud, AI, software acquisitions, and growth programs.
Colleagues consistently recognized her leadership.
One former client noted that Cheri “was very driven, focused on the end results, and delivered exceptionally high-quality service exceeding our expectations.”
Another executive praised her “unrivaled enthusiasm and passion,” highlighting her ability to motivate teams and deliver compelling messaging at scale.
By every traditional measure, Cheri had “made it.” Yet success, she would soon realize, was evolving.
Redefining Success and Reclaiming Choice
For nearly 15 years, Cheri devoted herself almost entirely to her career. She rose to executive levels, earned influence, and achieved financial independence. But standing among senior leaders, she confronted a quiet truth: this version of success did not align with the legacy she wanted to leave behind.
“I realized my job wouldn’t leave a legacy the way I wanted,” she reflects.
That recognition catalyzed a pivotal shift. Motherhood, once something she assumed would happen naturally, became intentional, planned, and non-negotiable.
Cheri made a choice many women feel pressured to postpone: she placed family-building ahead of titles. She stepped away from executive boardrooms, intentionally choosing remote and flexible work that supported her goal of becoming a mother.
“You can have it all,” she says, “but often not all at once.”
This reframing of power and choice became central to her philosophy, and eventually, her platform.
From Personal Journey to Public Mission
Cheri’s lived experience navigating infertility, donor conception, foster parenting, and single motherhood by choice became the foundation for a larger movement. In 2020, she founded Cheri’s Choice, a nonprofit dedicated to educating, supporting, and empowering women to proactively plan for and pursue diverse, intentional paths to motherhood, whether through IVF, surrogacy, donor conception, foster parenting, adoption, or solo motherhood, with or without Prince Charming.
Through counseling, community, and practical guidance, Cheri’s Choice helps women replace uncertainty with informed decision-making. The message is clear: families do not have to follow a single blueprint to be valid, whole, or beautiful.
Cheri also launched Mission Motherhood Media and became a keynote speaker and author. Her Amazon #1 bestselling book, Mission: Motherhood, Writing a New Fairy Tale of Love and Family, offers a raw, honest account of her journey, sharing both triumphs and heartbreaks so other women can navigate their paths with clarity and confidence.
At the heart of her work is a powerful mindset shift.
“You can plan for motherhood. You don’t have to leave it to chance,” she emphasizes.
Choosing a different family structure, she argues, is not failure, it is freedom.
Measuring Success in Meaning
Despite her visibility as an advocate, author, and speaker, Cheri remains deeply grounded in gratitude and service. Healing her own trauma has allowed her to fully show up for others, especially women navigating emotionally complex decisions around fertility and family.
Rather than focusing on metrics like book sales or speaking fees, Cheri measures impact differently.
“Instead of measuring my success in dollars, I measure it in babies,” she says.
Helping one woman at a time see new possibilities has become her most meaningful work, and the truest expression of leadership she knows.
A New Blueprint for Motherhood
Today, Cheri Bergeron stands at the intersection of advocacy, leadership, and lived experience. As a single mother of two, nonprofit founder, and national voice for reproductive autonomy, she is helping rewrite cultural narratives around family, choice, and fulfillment.
Her vision is both bold and practical: a world where women are taught to plan for motherhood with the same intention they apply to their careers; where diverse family structures are normalized; and where no woman feels she must settle, or wait, for her dream of becoming a mother.
“If the traditional fairy tale isn’t coming together,” Cheri reminds women, “you can still achieve your dream of motherhood.”
Editorial Note
Cheri Bergeron’s story challenges deeply held assumptions about success, timing, and what it means to build a meaningful life. Her leadership invites women—and society—to expand the definition of family and reclaim agency over one of life’s most personal decisions.
For readers navigating their own crossroads, her journey offers a powerful reminder: when purpose leads, courage follows—and entirely new possibilities can emerge.
