Erika was born and raised in Missouri and started playing piano at the age of 7.  She picked up the oboe at 13 and played in many concert bands and orchestras throughout high school and college. 

She studied with an incredible piano teacher, Janice Saffir at Truman State University who now resides in Colorado Springs.  She truly inspired Erika to continue playing and studying piano.

Erika went on to pursue her graduate degree in music education and was about to give up the oboe until she met and had a lesson with an incredibly inspiring oboist, Peter Cooper (Colorado Symphony Orchestra).  He changed her outlook on the oboe and she studied with Peter for the entire time she spent at UNC.

Erika has a Master's degree in Music Education from the University Northern Colorado and a Bachelor's degree in Piano from Truman State University in Missouri.

She spent 7 years as a middle school band director in the Colorado Springs area - 4 years at Ft. Carson, 3 years at Lewis-Palmer.

In 2016, Erika had the idea to take Henrique's teachings and put them on video so that more people could study with a Berklee professor without the large financial investment. Erika knew that Henrique was born to teach and the incredible knowledge his legendary drum teachers passed on to him was worth passing on to other drummers.  Erika believed that there needed to be high quality education for drummers and no one was filling that void.  No one else has what Henrique has. 

In April 2017, TheDrumSetCoach.com was born.  As of the fall 2019, there are 9 complete courses, 5 e-books, and 2 play alongs available for purchase.  There are also many more courses in the que waiting to get launched.  Within those courses are over 50 hours of instruction and 100+ lessons.   World class videographer, Scott Quade (Zildjian and Vic Firth) helped record and edit almost all of the courses and play alongs.  It's awesome!

Erika has won 4 business awards from Kajabi (the website platform) and has had a very successful direct sales business for the past 13 years.  She has been in the top 2% of the $4 billion direct sales cosmetic company, Mary Kay.

Erika wears many hats, but none more important than being a wife and a homeschooling mom.  Those are her most prized accomplishments.