Cheryl Carter on finding her purpose in aerospace quality

Despite coming from an aviation background, with parents as aviators, Cheryl Carter, a quality manager at Boeing Fabrication South Carolina Aerostructures (FSCA), first pursued a career in fashion.

“My dad was in the Air Force, and my mother was in aviation as well. But when I first graduated from high school, I really thought I was going to do something in fashion,” she says.

Carter enrolled at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. But after two semesters, she realized fashion wasn’t a good fit. Accepting a secretarial job in the quality department of the Kennedy Space Center became a turning point in her quest to discover her passion.

“I was the secretary to the quality director, and that’s what ignited my interest in aerospace quality management,” Carter explains.

She enrolled in an Aeronautical Science degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and eventually decided to pursue a career as a quality specialist.

“One major thing I realized with quality is that I get to explore other disciplines. And that’s what I like. It’s never boring. No day is ever the same. One day, I am interfacing with engineering, and the next day, I could be on the floor talking with the inspectors and the supply chain,” she says.

As an aerospace quality manager, Carter oversees a team dedicated to delivering products and services that are free from defects. She ensures all offerings meet engineering specifications and customer requirements. The AS9100 standard serves as her foundational guideline.

In 2020, the award-winning operations leader was appointed as a quality manager at Boeing Global Services in San Antonio, Texas, with a focus on Nondestructive Inspection.

But after a 30-year career of upward trajectory — and amid the COVID pandemic — she retired in 2021.

Four years later, the aviation bug bit again, and she exited retirement to resume her role as quality manager, this time at Boeing FSCA in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Cheryl Carter poses for a selfie at work “I decided that I wanted to keep doing what I was doing, but I also wanted to have more influence on the people side too. Any effective leader would tell you that it really is all about the people.”

So, she pursued an MBA. “It just rounded me out in terms of being able to see more than just the technical stuff,” she explains. “When you’re a techie, it’s really easy to get lost while everything else is going on around you.”

As a female leader in a male-dominated industry, Carter is accustomed to advocating for herself. For example, five years ago during a leadership workshop, her professional suggestions were ignored.

“I said, ‘hey, this is a great idea,’ and I put it out there. Nobody said anything, which really isn’t that uncommon,” Carter recalls. “But then there was a guy right next to me, and he literally said the same thing that I had just said. And they were like, ‘oh, that’s such a great idea.'”

She immediately called out the discrepancy. It was a defining moment, and a reminder that women’s voices often get drowned out.

Nevertheless, Carter believes female representation has improved in aviation compared to when she first started. Her advice to younger women?

“Don’t let it throw you off your game. Choose your moments wisely, and sometimes speaking up immediately is necessary; other times, a private conversation could be more effective. But whatever you do, don’t stay silent.”

Carter’s leadership goes beyond quality management. She also co-founded a fitness business, U Fitness, which has taught her unexpected lessons. “It really taught me to look at the big picture and make good use of my MBA.”

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All images credited to Cheryl Carter