Annika Ericksen, PhD
Dr. Ericksen grew up in Gig Harbor, Washington, and attended Macalester College in Minnesota where she studied anthropology and Spanish. She has enjoyed immersion in other cultures since her college days, when she volunteered as an English tutor for Tibetan refugees in Minnesota and then participated in an SIT semester in Tibetan Studies, which involved travel from northern India to Nepal and Tibet. After college, she taught English at a private school in South Korea. She then joined the Peace Corps, serving as an English teacher in rural Mongolia for two years, living in rustic style in a yurt, learning the Mongolian language, and getting to know local residents who are still friends many years later.
Dr. Erickson attended graduate school in anthropology at the University of Arizona to continue learning about other cultures in ways that are out of reach to most travelers/tourists. She then taught anthropology and environment courses at the college level in Minnesota before transitioning to international education. In summer 2022, she led college students and other interested participants in a research-based field course on pastoralism and climate change in Mongolia. She mentored participants as they interviewed Mongolian nomadic livestock herders about the impacts of climate change. Between travels, Dr. Ericksen is working to turn her family’s five-acre farm property in Washington state into a sustainable permaculture center. She spent a few months volunteering on organic/permaculture farms in Spain to get ideas for that project. She likes to learn from all kinds of people and believes in treating all perspectives with respect.
Education
- PhD, anthropoligy, University of Arizona