OUR team
Erika Owens
Capacity Building and Systems Development Lead
Erika joined EIIP in September 2026 as Capacity Building and Systems Development Lead. She loves supporting small organisations to find creative, values-based paths to financial and organisational sustainability.
She was Co-Director and Executive Director of OpenNews, where she supported a thriving network and created inclusive, caring spaces for the journalism-tech community to learn from each other and share strategies on pushing for change in their organisations. Through community organising groups and work with the Notebook newspaper in Philadelphia, she learned how collective action can reshape systems, wield power, and alter how we relate to and support one another.
Now based in Sheffield, UK, she serves on the boards of South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice, the Movement Alliance Project, and Superbloom. Erika has trained as a donor organiser with Bread and Roses Community Fund and recently completed a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship. She loves nonprofit journalism, people watching, and laughing heartily.