Erica Veal is a local historian, archivist, editor and interpreter. She attended Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina where she graduated with a degree in History and Spanish in 2007. After working as a Graduate Assistant and Processing Archivist at the Avery Research Center from 2003-2010 Erica went on to work as the Cultural History Interpretive Specialist with Charleston County and later worked in management. While there she became a Certified Interpretive Guide, a certified Master Naturalist (and Master Naturalist instructor), certified First Responder and trained in wilderness first aid. Veal received her Master's in History (with a concentration in African American History) in 2013 from the College of Charleston where she published a thesis on activist educator James Eber Campbell. In 2016, she became the Associate Editor of a historically Black newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina and returned to the Avery Research Center as Project Archivist three years later. When she isn't working, she likes to devote time to spiritual practices, spending time in nature and with friends and family. She's an avid gardener who loves cooking, making natural skin care products, writing and serving others.