Erica is a journalist and travel industry veteran, with more than 20 years of media experience that spans broadcast, print and digital. She’s produced for ABC, NBC, FOX, A&E, TIME, Travelzoo, Yahoo Travel, Frommer’s Travel, Fodor’s, Orbitz, Travelocity, AAA World magazine, AAA Explorer magazine and AAA digital publications.

Erica’s wanderlust has resulted in some incredible adventures, many of which have made their way into published stories. Highlights include:

• Trekking Nepal’s renowned Everest Base Camp and Annapurna Circuits

• Hunting for UFOs in Sedona with a woman who says she’d been abducted by aliens twice

• Evading a charging elephant and witnessing The Great Migration while on safari in Tanzania

• Attending cooking school in Positano, Italy

• Camping with The Bedoins in the deserts of Jordan

• Spending time in silence at ashrams and retreat centers across Asia, Europe and North America

• Snorkeling with penguins and sea lions in The Galápagos Islands

• Participating in a ceremonial dunking in the Ganges River while on a pilgrimage across India

As a Northwestern University-trained journalist, Erica’s curiosity is the fuel behind everything she does. She fuses a passion for prose with an astute understanding of business objectives. It’s a pairing that made her a pioneer in the field of content marketing.

She began her career as an on-air reporter in Washington, D.C., covering the aftermath of 9/11. She worked in local television news before transitioning into a documentary producer for Emmy-nominated programs such as “Cold Case Files” under the guidance of legendary journalist Bill Kurtis. Erica produced and wrote more than 40 storylines for the true-crime documentary series, traveling across the country regularly to interview detectives, forensic scientists, victims and convicted killers.

With the burgeoning of the internet, digital media came calling. As Director of Destinations Content for Travelzoo, Erica led a global content marketing arm for a travel publisher with 28 million subscribers worldwide and built a multimillion-dollar piece of the business that worked in partnership with tourism boards to tell stories of fascinating destinations around the world.

Following an around-the world sabbatical to study yoga and meditation, Erica returned home to become a regular contributor to Orbitz and Yahoo Travel, helping the latter become the No. 1 digital travel publication in the world. Erica also has consulted major brands and advertising agencies on content marketing strategies and has taught journalism at Northwestern University and DePaul University.

Erica continues to freelance and travel while raising her family just outside of Chicago.