About

EDUCATION I am originally from Massachusetts, and completed my undergraduate degree at Stonehill College in North Easton, MA, in 2018. At Stonehill, I majored in Philosophy with minors in English and Political Science. I entered college without much certainty about what I wanted to study, but am thankful to have attended a school with a philosophy requirement, because after about one week of PHL100 , I was hooked. I also studied English and Political Science. Stonehill gave me a phenomenal set of undergraduate mentors, including Megan Mitchell, Andrea Opitz, Laura Scales, and Anna Lannstrom. After graduating from Stonehill, I moved to Oxford, OH to complete an M.A. at Miami University. After completing my degree at Miami, I moved even further west to Seattle to begin my Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 2020. I am happy to share a list of my graduate-level coursework.

I defended my doctoral dissertation (titled Bad Feelings, Feeling Badly) in 2026. I also completed a graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STSS) at UW. Below is a picture of my dissertation committee and me after my defense.

From left: Carina Fourie, Gaile Pohlhaus Jr. (on the laptop!), Sara Goering, me, Carole Lee, and Tim Brown.

This is a photo of Erica, a white person with dark hair pulled into a loose bun and secured with a multicolored cloth headband. Erica is smiling, and the blurred background has a dark red tree. Erica is wear a black fitted t-shirt under a loose, light-blue chambray button-down shirt.

OTHER I love reading fiction, especially horror, psychological thrillers, and mysteries. I follow NCAA football quite closely, and am still reveling in the UW Huskies' performance in the 2023-4 season.

I began practicing yoga while at Stonehill, during a learning community course on Indian Philosophy. I completed a yoga teacher certification program in 2019, and taught classes at Root Yoga in Oxford, OH. I maintain a regular practice, and am going to resume teaching vinyasa classes soon! I've also recently started bouldering. I'm pretty terrible at it, but it's as fun a mental exercise as it is a physical one.

I completed the 2025 Chicago Marathon as a fundraiser for Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) in memory of my sister-in-law Amy Aiko Kawazoe who died three weeks after being diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia in 2023.

I have two nephews, Charlie and Henry, and they're my favorite people in the universe. Watching someone experience the world as new is one of the most awe-inspiring experiences I've had.

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