Biography
A passionate professional with 12 years of teaching and curriculum design experience, Erica, Ed.D., is a Senior Advanced Placement and Honors English teacher at St. Brendan High School. For the past six years, she has coordinated the Oral History Project, which is responsible for recording the immigrant narratives of families in the South Florida community. Erica earned a B.A. in English Literature and Education and her M.A. in Journalism from the University of Miami. She earned her Ed.D. in Education with a specialization in Reading Education from Nova Southeastern University. Her doctoral thesis focused on the effects of Digital Game-Based Learning on reading motivation, engagement, and comprehension in high school students, specifically in Hispanic communities.
Her current research interests and publications are in Digital Game-Based Learning, Digital Literacy, Literacy Instruction in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms (specifically in schools serving Hispanic communities), Role of the Family in Education, Schools as Community Historians: Oral History Projects in Secondary Schools, English Language Arts Curriculum Development. Erica is grateful to give back to the South Florida community, especially since she was born and raised in Miami. She is deeply committed to fostering a creative and engaging learning environment where students receive the opportunity to master new skills and are challenged by their course material.