As a recent Master of Peace and Conflict Studies graduate from the University of Waterloo, Erica combines her passion for food security and sustainability with conflict management practices. As a graduate student, she worked for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), gaining further insight into both food and environmental policy and programming at the provincial level.

She earned a B.A. in International Development at the University of Guelph in 2019 and throughout her undergraduate degree travelled both domestically and internationally to gain hands on experience in sustainable development practices. In 2019, for example, she participated in a field school to Yukon where she studied regional food systems from a northern context.