Meet the Riveter: Cheryl Duckett

Our Riveter, Cheryl Duckett loves her numbers and spreadsheets and graduated with a degree in accounting from Western Kentucky University (Go Big Red!), however, in the past eight years her career took a backseat to focus on taking care of her three boys. As a military spouse and mother, it became harder to find employment as the family packed up and moved every couple years.

Three years ago, Cheryl was introduced to R. Riveter when she met co-founder Cameron Cruse. She lived close to R. Riveter headquarters, so her first job with the company was doing quality control on the bags. Cheryl would go over to the R. Riveter shop that Cameron ran out of her garage, at that time, and pick up bags to inspect before they were shipped to customers. Six months after Cheryl began her quality control job, her family needed to relocate again.

Due to the move, Cheryl was not able to continue quality control, so she learned how to cut and dye leather in order to continue her work with the company.

As the company grew through word-of-mouth and an appearance on “Shark Tank,” so did Cheryl’s responsibilities. She added on canvas cutting and dying to her list of duties a year after her move away from R. Riveter’s headquarters. But as visibility and demand grew, Lisa could no longer handle the bookkeeping on her own. R. Riveter needed someone to handle the company’s accounting, so they turned to Cheryl, who was able to put her degree in to work.

Cheryl is now happily crunching numbers on behalf of R. Riveter while also being able to balance her responsibilities at home with the understanding that she is able to move wherever and still continue supporting her family.  

“I’m able to contribute to my family, and more importantly, I’m able to get back into my field,” Cheryl said. “It’s good for my kids to see that I’m more than a mom.”