Erica brings over 15 years of experience in higher education to her role as the Assistant Director for Staff & Programs in the Office of Residential Life. Her own undergraduate experience at Bowdoin College was transformative, both intellectually and personally thanks to the faculty, staff, and friends who were part of that experience. Erica values the opportunity to meet undergraduates where they are at and help them clear the barriers to the student experience they seek. And if there isn’t clarity on what they are seeking she welcomes the chance to work alongside them as they explore their values and aspirations in an educational environment.
Before joining the Ithaca College community, she lived and worked with undergraduates at Cornell University for almost ten years as the Hans Bethe House Assistant Dean in the West Campus House System. This residential experience exposed her to complexities and balancing act student navigate daily. She also served as an academic advisor where she worked closely with the first-generation peer mentor program.
Erica grew up in Maine and earned her B.A. in Sociology at Bowdoin College and then headed west to Stanford University where she earned her M.A. in Education. Currently she is working on her Ph.D. in Information Science at Cornell. Her research focus is on the role technology plays in first-year students’ initial weeks of transition to university life. For fun outside of the office she does wild things like cycle across the United States, have mini-adventures with her partner and two sons, and work on optimizing the location of her bird feeders.