Meteorology graduate returns to join Alumni Homecoming court, pens memoir

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If there’s one thing a career in meteorology and atmospheric science taught Penn State alumna Cheryl Nelson, it’s that things can change in the blink of an eye. She graduated in 2002 and since then has been navigating through storms and sunny days in a career that’s shifted more than a Central Pennsylvania season.

Now, Nelson is returning to University Park on Sept. 26 as part of the Alumni Homecoming court, an honor that also comes on the heels of another recent achievement: publication of her memoir.

Nelson, whose talents include broadcast meteorology, television hosting, pharmaceutical sales, consulting and writing, recently chronicled her many career pivots, and her eight-month health battle following complications from an Epstein-Barr diagnosis, ahead of the publishing of her upcoming book, titled “Wind Shift: An Unexpected Illness and a Life Shaped by Detours.”

Nelson grew up in Connecticut fascinated by weather. She said she knew by age 9 that she wanted to be a broadcast meteorologist, a dream that surprised all who knew the girl who hid behind trees whenever a camera was in view.

She spent her formative years gaining confidence, joining theater and participating in pageants. When she visited Penn State, she said, it rained under gloomy skies. The second time, however, the weather cooperated.

After graduating, Nelson found mentors and gained enough experience to find an on-air spot in Central New York, not far from where her husband — who then was deployed in Afghanistan — was stationed.

She followed a changing industry for a decade before pivoting to wide ranging work in pharmaceuticals, the U.S. Department of Defense, college admissions and disaster preparedness.

Battle to get back

Her biggest pivot came in 2022 when an eventual Epstein-Barr diagnosis led to a series of hospital stays, surgeries, and a lengthy recovery from liver failure, sepsis, infections and abscesses that whittled her down to 87 pounds. She said she credits a doctor at Duke University for saving her life.

While in the hospital, dreams of recovery turned into reality. To keep up her spirits, she said, she planned a trip around the world. When she recovered a year later, she took the trip. She also returned to on-air broadcasting, earning an Emmy nomination in the No. 1 market while filling in for talent on medical leave at Fox 5 New York.

“A year after I got sick, I thought, ‘How in the world is this possible?’ ” Nelson said. “The comeback was my driver. It inspired me to accomplish things I never thought I could.”

At that point, Nelson's friends encouraged the lifelong communicator to pen a book and, she said, she often asked “Why?”

After some thought came the answer.

“I realized that I could give others in a similar situation hope. I could inspire them,” Nelson said. “Everybody goes through struggles, whether it’s a health crisis or a career crossroads, or not knowing their purpose or not thinking they’re enough.”

A homecoming

Nelson said she is checking off another bucket list item this weekend when she takes to the West Shore Field at Beaver Stadium during the Nittany Lions’ Sept. 26 matchup against Wisconsin.

She was selected to the alumni Homecoming court out of thousands of applicants and said she credits her “enormous amount of Penn State pride” for helping her stand out. In addition, she’s spent much of her career mentoring students, serving for a decade on her college’s Graduates of Earth and Mineral Sciences Board. She’s even taking a break from Homecoming festivities for a chat with students.

She said her interest in pageants started at Penn State as a way to get in front of crowds and shake her shyness. She participated in Miss Penn State and several others over a decade before eventually winning the crown as Mrs. Virginia International in 2014 on a platform of disaster preparedness. She always wanted to be on the homecoming court in high school but didn’t come out of her shell until college, she said.

“It's just amazing to be recognized like that,” Nelson said. “I was a very self-conscious girl and teenager and didn’t have the confidence that I do today.”

Aiming to inspire others

Nelson spent her teens living in Richmond, Virginia, her weather obsessed eyes always gravitating towards the notorious rain/snow line on Interstate 95. She said the ever-changing wind shifts she saw guided both her career and her recovery.

She grew up in the glory days of weather forecasting in the 1990s, she said, when forecasters such as her friend Jim Cantore were household names and celebrities.

When the industry shifted, so did she.

“A lot of meteorologists have an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Nelson, who created her own disaster preparedness company, Prepare with Cher LLC. “Forecasters deal with a lot of uncertainty. We forecast the future yet learn how to pivot when the forecast doesn't go your way. We learn how to adapt.”

Her illness put her in uncomfortable situations, but, she said, she’s stronger for it.

“I thought I might die at 42, and it just goes to show you can go from perfectly healthy to having everything taken away,” Nelson said. “I look at life differently now. We all have an expiration date, but nobody knows when it's going to be, and you just have to live every day, make the best of it, and stop putting things off.