Cheryll Toney Holley is a professional researcher, writer, and speaker specializing in African American and Indigenous peoples of New England, a passion she shares by compiling genealogies and written family histories for descendants of New England’s communities of color. Cheryll is also the Sonksq (female leader) of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band, a state- recognized Indigenous tribe in Massachusetts. She co-founded and currently serves on the board of the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation – an Indigenous non-profit dedicated to the well-being of all Nipmuc people and the stewardship of Nipmuc homelands.
A mom of four and grandmother of eight, Cheryll currently lives in Worcester where generations of her family lived before her.