Erin was born and raised in Maryland. As a high school student, she interned in the Lab of Protein Dynamics and Signaling under Dr. Allan Weissman at the nearby NCI Frederick National Labs, mainly specializing in protein purification and assays. She continued interning for this lab as an undergraduate at Hood College in Frederick Maryland, with Dr. Federico Bernal. Later, she interned in the Protein Chemistry Molecular Biology Section of the larger Natural Products Branch of NCI under Dr. Barry O'Keefe. After graduating with her bachelor's degree in biochemistry, she continued with Dr. O'Keefe as a post-baccalaureate working on purifying two highly bioactive natural product lectins. Later she transferred to work with Dr. Curtis Henrich in the Assay Development and Screening Lab, where she screened natural products in cancer and senescent cell-based assays for drug discovery. Working with natural products during this time inspired her to pursue a PhD in natural products chemistry, which brought her to UF's Chemical Biology department. Her interests include natural product drug and antibiotic discovery from both fungi and bacteria.