Dr. Cheryl Radeloff was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Beavercreek, Ohio in the 1960s. Radeloff received her master's degree in sociology from the University of Toledo in 1996, and heard about a research position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She contacted Dr. Maralee Mayberry and Dr. Peg Rees of the UNLV sociology department and was hired as a graduate assistant through Promise (Projects for Interdisciplinary and Multi-cultural Study in Education).