Erika grew up on an organic farm in Versailles, Indiana, where her Grandpa used horse-drawn equipment and sold produce on the front lawn.  After high school, Erika worked for a year to save money for college.  She spent six months as a laboratory technician, producing a form of pest control for citrus growers.  When the winter season came, she worked in a factory in North Vernon, Indiana, manufacturing fuel filler tubes for GM and Harley Davidson engines until her first semester at Indiana University.

Erika is a first-generation college graduate. She moved to Bloomington in August 1999 to attend Indiana University and fell in love with the community. Erika studied audio recording at the Jacobs School of Music, worked on the Electrics and Paint Crews for IU Opera and Ballet Theater, and operated the sound board for live musicians at the Cellar Lounge.  In December 2003, Erika earned a B.A. in General Studies, with a science concentration, from the School of Continuing Studies. 

After college, Erika supervised the Electrics Crew and served as an assistant lighting designer to Michael Schwandt at the IU Opera and Ballet Theater.  She worked calls for IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 618 at the IU Auditorium. She also waited tables part-time at Café Django. Erika later attended IU Maurer School of Law, where she served on the Advisory Board and as a Student Director of Protective Order Project, and she was Symposium Editor for the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. Erika also interned at Middle Way House, Indiana Legal Services, Inc., and in her final year of law school was a law clerk in the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, where she found her passion. 

Prior to taking office in 2019, Erika served as a Deputy Prosecutor for nine years. She began her career working on misdemeanors and traffic infractions. She then worked her way up through the office ranks, next assuming the role of felony drug prosecutor, serving for several years on the Monroe County Drug Treatment Court team and also teaching criminal law and investigations at the Indiana University Law Enforcement Academy. After that, Erika served two years as a major felony prosecutor.

Erika is a fierce community supporter, serving on numerous boards and committees over the years, to include the Board of Directors of the Monroe County Bar Association (2011 and 2012), the Board of Trustees for Girls Inc. of Monroe County (2019 - 2024), the Chair (2021) and Summit Planning Chair (2024) for the Monroe County Substance Use Disorder Advisory Committee, the Chair of Adult Protective Services Committee (2019-2025), the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council (2024-2025), and the Monroe County Justice Reinvestment Advisory Committee (2023-2025), to name a few.

Erika also enjoys hiking, knitting, and reading. Over the years, she also also played bass in a few local alternative rock bands, Slacks and Airtight Garage, and toured with Sam Lowry and the Circumstance and Nathaniel Seer. She is a student pilot, learning to fly single-engine, fixed-wing aircraft.