Erica Ciaraldi grew up in San Diego, California. Most recently, she completed a public health fellowship with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), a local NGO in Lusaka, Zambia where she strengthened government ownership of HIV-related health service delivery in public clinics. Erica majored in global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and received her Master of Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles. While in graduate school, she worked as a research assistant on studies examining the impact of different measures of women’s empowerment on various reproductive health outcomes. Erica also worked with the Population Council on an acceptability study for the introduction of a new contraceptive to meet the needs of breast-feeding women. After graduating from graduate school, she moved to Washington DC to work as a Technical Advisor for Gender in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Erica enjoys soccer, cheese and traveling.