Cynthia Merrill is well known in the San Joaquin Valley as a dance and etiquette teacher.   She is certified as an Image Consultant, Teacher of Communication Skills, Coach in Interview Preparation, Dress for Success, Business and Social Etiquette and a Ballroom Dance Instructor. She teaches Business Etiquette Seminars to Corporate America and most recently taught a Business Etiquette Seminar to all the top sales executives of Delta Dentist of California.

 Cynthia Merrill was a judge for the Miss California Pageant of the Miss America Corporation.

Cynthia was the founder and artistic director of the Cynthia Merrill School of Performing Arts in Fresno, California for 36 years and now is the CEO of her new company, “Cynthia Merrill Projects”.

Under the umbrella of “Cynthia Merrill Projects”, Cynthia teaches her Cotillion Program of Ballroom Dance and Manners to hundreds of the valley’s pre-teens and teens every year and choreographs for and directs her performing “Demonstration Ballroom Dance Team” She teaches etiquette workshops for businesses, adults, teenagers and children starting at age 4.

One of Cynthia Merrill’s most current successes and passions is preparing high school and college students for their scholarship and college entrance interviews and students and adults for their employment interviews. Her students have had outstanding success in finding employment and being accepted to universities. She works with students privately and in her classes called Interview Preparation and Etiquette Seminars.

She continues teaching her dance and etiquette programs in our public and privates schools having taught in 65 valley schools from kindergarten through the university level, including training for students at Fresno Pacific University and 22 years at San Joaquin Memorial High School.. As a business consultant for Performing Arts, Music and Dance Schools, Cynthia Merrill helps businesses grow by improving their marketing skills, telephone sales, image and teaching curriculum and concert presentations.

Cynthia Merrill, when an instructor at Fresno City College, was honored in June 2010, by the Associated Student Government at Fresno City College as a “Teacher of Diligent Service and Dedication to Student Success.

 Cynthia has been selected and awarded the “Central California Excellence in Business, Hall of Fame Award” and  recognized as one of the valley’s “Top Ten Business and Professional Woman of the Year”.

 “Imagine Magazine” wrote a feature article about Cynthia Merrill as an outstanding teacher of dance and etiquette and in the “Valley Virtue Magazine”  an article featured Cynthia Merrill as a mother who brought up her children to achieve great success.

Her sons, Cyrus Merrill, a Fulbright Scholar and now a United States History teacher, was a finalist in the “California Teacher of the Year Competition” and is a current coach and former State President of the “Future Problem Solving International Competition” with many years of internationally winning teams:

Her younger son, Than Merrill, is a graduate of Yale University, a former NFL football player and one of the three stars of the TV show, “Flip This House” and co- founder of the nationally known "CT Homes" and “Fortune Builders, Inc.” His company, "Fortune Builders", was ranked #1  by "INC Magazine" in "Business and Real Estate Education" out of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States.

Both of her sons were in the Cotillion Program for 8 years and have stated it was the most valuable after school activity they experience in their growing up years in preparing them for both their professional and social life.