Cheryl Derby Martino The Garden Club Council of Greater Columbia installed Cheryl Derby Martino as its president for a one year term at its Annual Awards and Installations Luncheon May 21, 2009, at the Lexington Country Club. She is the 49th president of the organization, which was formed in 1941.

Mrs. Martino moved to Columbia from New Jersey in 2001 and has been a member of Garden Club Council since that year. Her interest in flower arranging and gardening piqued her interest in the council's activities, and she soon became a board member, serving as secretary for the last five years and as hostess chairman before that.

With over 600 individual members and 27 garden clubs forming its core, the organization has as its mission to develop and strengthen cooperation and comradeship among the garden clubs of greater Columbia; to serve as a central agency through which joint garden club projects may be efficiently handled; to promote the purpose and the program of Garden Club of South Carolina; and to own, maintain and operate the Garden Club Council of Greater Columbia building in Maxcy Gregg Park. The Council is a member of the National Garden Clubs, Inc., the South Atlantic Region, Garden Club of South Carolina, Inc., and the West Sandhills District.

Martino has a B.A. degree from Elmira College, Elmira, NY, and an M.B.A. degree in management and organizational behavior from New York University. She was employed for 31 years in the Home Office of Metropolitan Life and MetLife, Inc., in New York City, and retired from MetLife as an executive in corporate governance, after having held management positions in the MetLife Foundation and the investment department, and as speechwriter to four successive chief executive officers of the company.

Martino is a board member of the Symphony League and Ikebana International Chapter 182, and a trustee of Bethel United Methodist Church. She also serves on the Alumni Board of Elmira College and has served on the boards of the Windsor Lake Park Homeowners Association and the Windsor Lake Park Garden Club. She is currently a member of the Lilac Garden Club. She is a member also of the University of South Carolina Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was named to Who's Who of American Women.