Erin Berry-McCrea

Dr. Erin Berry-McCrea serves as a principal in The Raben Group’s Beyond Diversity Strategies Practice. Trained as a sociolinguist, Erin possesses more than 12 years of experience as an interdisciplinary practitioner-educator-scholar unpacking the complexities of language, society, and culture in and beyond the digital landscape.

Before joining Raben, Erin led the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy for Generation USA, where she catalyzed the nonprofit’s internal and external DEI journey for all stakeholder groups with a specific focus on facilitating organizational cultural assessments and developing and implementing a theory of change for the organization that centered racial equity, anti-racism, and inclusion. Erin also led a myriad of workshops and sessions for the organization on the U.S. and global sides.

Erin previously worked in various research, teaching, and administrative capacities leading organizations through DEI theory and praxis and change management work at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction; Saint Augustine’s University; Towson University; The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Bowie State University. Erin’s research, teaching, and engagement reflect her longstanding personal commitment to facilitating and applying anti-racist, equity-centered, and womanist lenses within social justice frameworks to make transformative change in all sociocultural contexts and spaces.

In 2018, Erin was awarded the National Council of Teachers of English Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award for her community engagement work in Black digital literacy, digital sociolinguistics, and culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogies. Her research has been published in Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism; PHILLIS: The Journal of Research on African American Women, Discourse: The Journal of SCASD, the Journal of Negro Education, the Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, as well as a myriad of academic texts. She has presented and facilitated webinars, seminars, and dialogue sessions across the globe on a variety of DEI themes and topics.

Erin earned her doctorate in Philosophy in Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where her dissertation research focused on examining language as a socially constructed and culturally embedded phenomenon and its role in the lives of Black millennial college-aged women across the digital landscape. A native of Durham, N.C., she received her master’s degree in Organizational Communications (Public Affairs and Corporate Training) from Bowie State University.