Information Literacy & Mental Health Advocate

is the author of Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories, a 2022 American Writing Awards gold medal recipient in academic/education, a 2022 Nautilus Book Award and Readers’ Favorite, silver medallion recipient in young-adult nonfiction and writing/publishing respectively. The book teaches people from all walks of life how to separate facts from fiction in any piece of information. Erik also is a 2022 Henry Ford Innovation Nation First Place winner for his media literacy studies tied to the book. In June of 2023 Erik's peer reviewed article, Seven Initial Prominent Sources of All Information Bias Impartiality Types Parsed was published in the European journal, Media Literacy and Academic Research. Read his latest study which also comments on the overall partiality of artificial intelligence (AI) within academic, for-profit, government, hidden agenda, individuals, nonprofit, and watchdog groups.

Erik's expertise is information and AI literacy, digital or analog, including information bias in all forms, videos, podcasts, social media, television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, for example. In 2024 he joined Scale AI as a contractor to train artificial intelligence for objectivity and tone. Several years prior, he presented a unique paper to suggest legislation and other social media policies to help offset a growing number of fake internet ads masquerading as news at the University of Oxford 2018 Internet, Policy, & Long Live Democracy Conference. Today, he is the Michigan Chapter Representative of Media Literacy Now.

He holds a master’s in journalism from Michigan State University and a doctorate in education from University of Phoenix. On July 1st, 2024, Erik joined Indiana Tech as full-time professor of practice in the Ph.D. in Global Leadership program. For 10 years prior he served as associate university research chair in the Center for Leadership Studies and as Leadership Perspectives section editor, Journal of Leadership Studies, John Wiley & Sons. His sanctioned research interests also include technology in the classroom, cultural competence, leadership, and mindfulness. 

Erik has 25 years of academic administration and teaching experience in English composition, film studies, humanities, cyber communications, critical thinking, journalism, leadership, and technical writing, including roles at Wayne County Community College, Berkley Public Schools (K-12 public retired), and as associate professor of arts & humanities at American Public University, both online and onsite. He has authored numerous innovative academic books for teachers and students at all levels. These include Social Media Writing Lesson Plans, Rigorous Grading Using Microsoft Word, (Westphalia Press) WordPress for Writing Projects (Compass Books), and Ethan's Healthy Mind Express: A Children's First Mental Health Primer (A 2020 award-winning book about inclusion, neurodiversity, and internet safety (including fake news and the dark web) for ages 5 to 10 published through his Michigan 501(c)3 nonprofit book imprint Healthy Mind Express) and has presented numerous peer reviewed papers, conceptual, research, and best practices at conferences the world over including Oxford University, Brussels, Barcelona, at Lords Cricket Stadium, London, University of Cape Town (2022 keynote South Africa), and Jerusalem Technical College, Israel. 

Finally, in addition to being a partner at Deadline Communications, a Web Studios, L.L.C. web design company from 1997 to 2017, earlier in Erik's career he held journalism roles as one of the first Caucasian editors of an African American weekly newspaper (Afro-American Gazette, 1992-1994), a reporter for The Grand Rapids Press (1992-1994), and editor of The Holt Community News (1995-1996), a suburban Lansing weekly (Gannett) newspaper. He is a mental health and media literacy advocate who works with a number of organizations and community projects. As a journalist Erik has been a freelance writer for many publications including Michigan Out-of-Doors, Michigan History Magazine, Advance Newspapers, The Spinal Column Newspapers, Detroit Metropolitan Woman, Marketing News, Aquaculture, and Freshwater & Marine Aquarium Magazine.