Campus Directory

Pronouns she, her, her, hers, herself

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Institute for Social Transformation

Title Training Coordinator

Affiliation Staff

Primary Office Location Oakes College Academic Building
Room 322

Mail Stop Oakes College

Biography, Education and Training

For more than 25 years, Erika has organized in faith, labor, LGBT, and public school communities on justice issues that impact urban families: healthcare, education, violence, immigration policy, affordable housing, and access to economic opportunity. She began working as a student labor organizer during college and then spent several years in New York City organizing with Citizen Action of New York. In 2004, she found the PICO National Network (now Faith in Action). As the lead organizer and Executive Director of PICO’s San Francisco affiliate, Erika led violence prevention and education campaigns, worked alongside clergy leaders to negotiate an historic community benefits agreement, and helped expand organizing to synagogues throughout the country. Erika has a BA in Sociology from Smith College, an MA in Spirituality and Social Transformation from the Pacific School of Religion, and a PhD in Theology and Ethics with a concentration in the History of Economic Thought from the Graduate Theological Union at UC Berkeley.

In her work at IST, Erika assists faculty and student researchers, as well as staff from partnering community organizations, who are interested in community-engaged research, particularly projects that have an eye towards systems or policy change. She helps make connections between theory and practice, builds mutually beneficial partnerships between academics and community stakeholders, and supports interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration. Erika has skills and experience in community organizing, nonprofit management, fundraising, leadership and staff development, training/curriculum development and delivery, power analysis, public policy campaigning, and general coaching and cheerleading. Erika believes that social change work requires translation and relationship-building at many levels, and she sees herself as a sort of ambassador between the worlds and languages of different academic disciplines, communities, and sectors – all who are necessary partners in building and maintaining healthy and responsive societal systems.