As Associate Director of FIU's Government & Community Affairs team in Washington, Eric leads The Talent Lab, which trains students and recent graduates on federal policymaking, advocacy, and careers.  The multi-day Fly-In Seminars, academic internship semesters, and other event series he manages focus on the skills of communication, emerging technology, and global learning, which are essential to career success in Washington, D.C.   In this role, he is a primary liaison between the university and a variety of high-level federal partners including The White House and USAID.  Eric considers himself a 'connoisseur of Congress and cafecito,' fascinated with learning everything he can about committees and caucuses while infusing the capital city with the warmth of Miami.  

Eric believes in equal access to internship opportunities regardless of financial or citizenship status, and has worked closely with Pay Our Interns, including as a member of their Advisory Board, to spread the message about the importance of paid internships.

Prior to moving to DC, Eric managed FIU’s Global Learning for Global Citizenship initiative for eight years in Miami, during which time he served on the Advisory Board of the local office of CWS, one of the federal government's ten approved refugee resettlement agencies. 

Eric holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree from FIU, and learned a lot from the experience of starting but not finishing two doctoral degrees.  Before he decided that he was done being a student for good, Eric had the opportunity to publish on topics related to higher education including virtual internships (2021), law enforcement on campus (2019), publicly engaged scholarship (2018), democratic deliberation (2016), and social media (2015).