Erika was a senior at Swarthmore College majoring in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies. At Swarthmore, she was involved in on-campus sustainability efforts and Swarthmore Journal of Science, an undergraduate science publication. Erika once spent five months in the Peruvian Amazon studying tree ferns with antibitoic potential. Erika is originally from Fairfax, Virginia. Erika worked in the lab from September 2016 to May 2017 and went on to become a research specialist in the Zon lab at Harvard.