Who’s behind the tools at HURST Jaws of Life? It’s the people who manage the details, like Buyer/Planner Cheryl Parker. Cheryl is strategic in ensuring vendors deliver supplies and components to HURST’s HQ on time. It’s her primary role to make sure her team has what it needs on the manufacturing floor to make the tools that save lives. It’s easy for Cheryl to identify the team’s needs because she knows these tools like the back of her hand. After all, she’ll celebrate 27 years with HURST Jaws of Life in January.

Cheryl started as a temporary employee but quickly found her permanent home; she’s worked in a variety of departments in her years with HURST Jaws of Life.

“I’ve worked in data entry and purchasing – and just about everything in between. I’ve done many different jobs here, except run a machine,” she laughs.

“This is a good place to work; with a great environment and an incredible product that saves lives, how much better it could get?

A Texas native, Cheryl moved to the Carolinas when she was a child. She is cherishing her new role of great aunt in HURST’s headquarters town of Shelby, North Carolina, just down the road from her family in Charlotte. “I have a 1-year-old grandniece; she’s the first baby born into the family in 37 years. We’re all ecstatic!”

When she’s not working behind the scenes for HURST Jaws of Life or spoiling her grandniece, Cheryl likes to travel with her husband. Savannah and Charleston are her two favorite spots to explore the history and quaint town geography. Appreciating history and how it made people and places what they are today is important to her. And when you work at a company that’s made its own history making life saving rescue tools for 45 years, it’s probably a good thing to appreciate the past.

Cheryl is part of a team that now carries HURST into the future, and we say thanks, Cheryl, for keeping parts in line for the team that works #BehindTheTools.