Erin is a senior research director in the Higher Education Analytics Center (HEAC) at NORC at the University of Chicago and a Sparks blog contributor. Erin brings more 15 years of experience working in higher education conducting research and analysis on postsecondary career pathways, college completion, campus and organizational climate, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.

Currently, Erin serves as project director of a grant from the National Science Foundation (award no. 2226007) to conduct a culturally responsive, mixed-methods research project addressing critical gaps in research related to career trajectories of STEM PhD students. This effort will further the goal of building an elite, diverse STEM workforce committed to addressing and solving pressing social problems and is in partnership with North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Erin also directs several campus climate studies for academic institutions and faith-based organizations.

Prior to NORC, Erin was the associate director of research and higher education and workforce research lead at Public Agenda. In this role, she designed and analyzed representative surveys of the general public and specialized surveys for postsecondary leaders and content experts. Before joining Public Agenda, Erin was a researcher and P-20 program director at the University System of Maryland. In this role, she worked at the intersection of policy and application, specializing in system and campus-level academic innovation work and research on academic/industry partnerships.