Erica’s pedagogy focuses on empowering each student to discover their creative eye and expressive voice. Her inclusive classroom community is a safe space for risk-taking, productive failure, and experimentation with the creative process. Erica believes that each student approaches design from a unique perspective and with the inherent creative potential that drives artistic inquiry.
Erica is a proponent of the principles of Universal Design for Learning, a teaching philosophy in which the instructor and the students co-create the learning experience. Her goal is to engage students in course material by building upon their prior knowledge and individual backgrounds so that they may develop a deep understanding of the subject’s relevance to them. Through this process, students gain competencies that will endure for a lifetime.
In 2010, Erica added fashion design to her curriculum, emphasizing an experimental approach that relies on research, openness to inspiration, and visual communication of ideas. Students apply a social justice lens to designing apparel and accessories, relying upon the history of fashion, symbolism in dress, and expressions of identity to manifest ensembles that blend art and fashion.
Erica mentors student costume designers, makeup designers, and fashion designers in realized, collaborative projects.
Courses taught by Erica include:
Costume Design
Introduction to Fashion Design
Performance Design
Black Lives Matter in Fashion
History of Fashion and Style
History of Theatre I & II
Stage Makeup
Costume Construction I & II