Erika Halstead is a nonprofit executive, educator, and expert facilitator with more than two decades of experience advancing educational equity, strengthening organizational capacity and strategic architecture, and supporting leadership development and culture-building. Since 2023, Erika has served as chief executive officer of Minds Matter, a network of 14 chapters across the nation that work with students from low-income communities as they navigate the path to college. In this role, she has evolved Minds Matter from a college access organization to one that supports students to, through, and beyond college.

Before leading the network, Erika spent nine years as executive director of the Minds Matter New York City chapter, where she more than doubled student enrollment and expanded programming to support college success and career readiness. Earlier in her career, she served as a senior program officer at Humanities New York, directing statewide youth and community engagement initiatives, including award-winning programs serving Latine and American Muslim communities. She began her career as a bilingual elementary school teacher in Texas and later taught literature as a university lecturer at Hunter College.

A proud Colombian-American, Erika was recognized as a Rising Star by the Hispanic Coalition of New York in 2018 and has served as a senior fellow with the Institute for Nonprofit Practice since 2022. She is an inaugural member of the Pinkerton Advanced Leadership Network and currently serves as a board member of Behind the Book. Erika holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.