Cheryl Knott is the Research Manager for the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute. For over fifteen years Cheryl has worked to ensure the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of community indicators that describe the quality of life for Baltimore City communities. She coordinates with staff and external data-creating agencies to produce customized statistical and research reports and evaluations that examine neighborhood-level trends on socio-economic characteristics, crime and safety, public health, housing and community development, educational achievement, and sustainability.

Cheryl also provides training to the public on using data resources, community asset mapping, evidence-based practices, and communicating data for grant writing. Cheryl is involved in coordinating Baltimore Data Day, an annual event that brings together a diverse audience to talk about data and resources in the city. She is a proponent of data democratization and has a strong interest in making data open and usable to the public as well as other professionals.

Prior to her arrival at BNIA-JFI in 2007, Cheryl studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Environmental Systems and a certification in Cartography in 2007 and a Master’s degree in Applied Sociology in 2013. Her research interests include the relationship between crime and the built environment including developing new quantitative measures for studying urban crime risk at the block level. In 2022 she completed a graduate certificate in Organizational Leadership from the University of Baltimore.

In 2017 Cheryl was awarded the UB Staff Award for Extraordinary Public Service to the University and Greater Community for her work on communicating data and information. She recently served two terms as the Data and Resources Subcommittee Chair for the Maryland State Geographic Information Committee (MSGIC) and is currently appointed to the Maryland Council on Open Data. In her spare time, Cheryl is a co-organizer for MaptimeBmore.