Meet Erika Taylor, Ph.D.
Title: Senior Researcher
Years at NEA: Nearly 11
In July 2021, NEA issued a groundbreaking and critical report, “Student Loan Debt Among Educators: A National Crisis.” Its findings?
Nearly half of all educators had borrowed to fund their own education—and nearly half of those educators still owed an average $58,700. One in seven owed more than $105,000. Startling, right?
This research fueled NEA’s advocacy on this issue, which eventually resulted in a major overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and debt forgiveness for nearly 876,000 teachers and other public employees.
And you know who did this research? NEASO members like Erika Taylor and her colleagues in NEA Research.
The effects have been profound, transforming the lives of NEA members—”changing how NEA members think about home ownership, about starting their own families, about retirement!” says Erika.
This is the power of smart, thoughtful, and strategically deployed research, and it is exactly what Erika means when she says that NEA research “shapes the way we support our members, identifying needs, challenges, successes, and more.”
Among Erika’s current projects? Assessing the efficacy of NEA’s leadership-development programs, tracking trends in funding for historically Black colleges and universities, revisiting that powerful student-debt research, and, oh yeah, also serving on her union’s bargaining team.
Thank you, Erika!
Fun Facts about Erika
Erika’s dissertation considered peer supports among African American adolescents, and how those supports affect their academic motivation and success, as measured by grade point average.
“We’ve heard so many times, especially for students of color, that they’re discouraged from doing well in school—but the data don’t show that!” says Erika.
She found that “students of color, and African American students specifically, hold the highest value for school and education.”
While she has worked in education for most of her career, Erika spent 4 years working for a public health consulting firm.
She enjoyed the work but realized two things:
- disparities in public health and education were more interrelated than she originally thought, and
- equitable access to quality education was her primary passion
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