Erika attended McMaster University where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and her Bachelor of Social Work which sparked her interest in community development and prevention-based approaches to social issues. Her work in child and youth programming inspired her to follow a career pathway that would result in building the capacity of young people to achieve their optimal wellbeing. She worked at the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton where she provided collaboration support with community partners and youth with lived experience of homelessness who are working together to end youth homelessness. In her current role as Senior Systems Planning Coordinator with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, she is keen to transfer the skills and knowledge that she has developed towards preventing and ending homelessness in Canada. In her downtime, Erika is likely to be found being amused by her cats.