Erika Arthur

Erika works in both the Justice Policy and Children, Youth, & Families program areas at the Catherine Cutler Institute. She has been staff on the Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative (VAWA MEI) and the Child Welfare Cooperative Project, and most recently with the Truth-seeking Project of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations established by the Maine Legislature.

Prior to working at the Catherine Cutler Institute, Erika worked as a bookseller, educator, farmworker, cook, and community organizer. The thread that runs through this meandering path is a desire to understand what conditions create barriers to individual and community thriving, and what conditions allow people and communities to access the support and resources they need to thrive. Since many of the answers to these questions point toward the need to dismantle the legacies of systemic racism and colonization, Erika is committed to building practices of anti-racism and decolonization that are rooted in compassion and that follow the lead of those who have been most harmed by these legacies.

Erika is a white, rural, queer, non-disabled, mixed-class settler who currently lives on unceded Abenaki/Penobscot land. When she is not working, Erika can be found walking in the woods of Wabanaki territory, digging in the garden, cooking, or buried under a pile of books.