Cherry Meier received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Texas at Galveston in 1969.  She continued her education by completing her master's degree in nursing from Texas Woman's University, Houston in 1982.  Throughout the years, Cherry has worked in various clinical settings including a medical-surgical unit, surgery, hemodialysis unit, and obstetrician-gynecologist office.

As she was completing her master’s, Cherry became interested in hospice.  At that time, the Medicare Hospice Benefit had not been implemented and work was still in the demonstration phase.  Cherry was employed as the first nurse of a non- profit hospice, Hospice of the Texas Medical Center, in Houston during the start-up phase.  As the census grew, she became the director of nursing and later, the executive director.  This experience was invaluable in building a strong foundation that has prepared her for hospice work in other capacities.

In 1989, she continued her hospice work and was employed by VITAS to start a program in Houston.  VITAS was a for-profit corporation and had been serving terminally ill residents in nursing homes through operations in other states.  One of the expectations of the new program was to develop similar relationships with Houston nursing homes.  In order to accomplish this task, Cherry furthered her education by completing graduate course work to be licensed as a nursing home administrator in Texas, 1992.  With this credential, she was able to assist in integrating the regulations of both providers.

In 1990, Cherry was asked to work in the area of Program Integrity, the quality assurance program for VITAS.  With operations in ten states, Cherry traveled to each, doing audits and surveys aimed at improving the care provided to patients/families.

VITAS established a Public Affairs department in 1991.  In the previous years, Cherry was very active in the hospice organizations on the state and national level, serving on the boards of the Texas Hospice Organization and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).  Currently, her role with VITAS is the Senior Director of Public Affairs. In that role, she is responsible for the legislative and regulatory oversight of issues that will influence the ability to provide hospice care in the states of Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Delaware, and Wisconsin.

Additionally, Cherry is also employed by NHPCO as Long-Term Care Manager.  Her job responsibilities in this role are to provide strategic and operational leadership, management and resources for the advancement of hospice and palliative care services in the long-term care setting.  She is a co-author of the NHPCO Nursing Home Tool Kit and travels throughout the states presenting on this topic.