Erica has been the Executive Director of Docs In Progress since 2009. She co-founded the organization in 2004 with fellow documentary filmmaker Adele Schmidt as a program to support the Washington area documentary community. It became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2008 and has grown to become a well-respected incubator for emerging documentary filmmakers locally and globally.
From 2007-2010, Erica was Volunteer Program Chair for the Utopia Film Festival, a community film festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. She has also served as Curator for the 2008 Council on Foundations Film Festival; Juror for the 2009 International Documentary Competition of Dokufest in Kosovo and the 2010 Michigan Regional Emmy Awards; and has been a panelist for cultural grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the U.S. Department of State. Erica has written articles for DOX and The Independent and is the newsletter editor, principal writer, and blogger for Docs In Progress.
Her video work includes Crucible of War, a documentary she produced about how ordinary people have rebuilt their lives after war in former Yugoslavia; Talking Threads, a web documentary she co-produced about international student reactions to 9/11, and production of several videos spotlighting the power of international exchange programs. While Docs In Progress and her other work take up most of her time, Erica is also at work (slowly but surely) on her own doc-in-progress, America’s Park which looks at how the microcosm of Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park in Washington DC has reflected larger changes in American society and urban development.
In addition to her work at Docs In Progress, Erica coordinates training programs for the Maryland Association of Nonprofits and occasionally accompanies foreign delegations participating in international professional and cultural exchanges in the United States. This follows a career of more than 18 years working for the U.S. Department of State in the area of international professional, academic, and cultural exchange programs.
She is proud that Silver Spring has become a center for documentary since it also happens to be her hometown; the Docs In Progress Documentary House is located only six blocks from the house where she was raised. She attended Albert Einstein High School’s prestigious Visual Art Center in Kensington, Maryland; holds a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University in Washington DC; and has an M.A. in Film and Video from American University in Washington DC. She has additional studies at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland; FAMU (national film school) in Prague, Czech Republic; and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.
