Welcoming Erin Cox to the IRCSGV Board: A Strategic Mind Crafting Public Policy with Heart

Erin Cox is a public policy professional and strategist with extensive experience in local government. A Policy Manager for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Erin specializes in issues surrounding family homelessness and homelessness prevention, immigration, and gender and race equity. Erin is a graduate of Southern Nazarene University and the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University, and we are honored to welcome her to the IRC Board. 

The daughter of a pastor in suburban Dallas, Erin grew up immersed in the rich complexity of a bilingual congregation as their church merged with another. Recognizing the reality that as a child the distinction between citizen and non-citizen was blurred and not immediately obvious, through relationships with friends, her youth group, and connections to church families she gained deeply personal insight into the complicated realities of many immigrant families. 

While an undergraduate at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma, Erin was exposed to the insidious nature of family separation and deportation within her congregation there. She recalls an undocumented mother being involved in a minor motor vehicle accident, who was then reported to authorities and ultimately deported leaving her husband and U.S.-born children behind. Being proximal to such familial destruction left its mark on Erin. A veil had been lifted as she experienced tremendous dissonance between the bizarre and impersonal machinations of the U.S. immigration system and its failure to align with values Americans espouse as a country of family and opportunity. The rippling effects were many, and Erin attributes this experience as well as a study-abroad experience in Latin America as formative to her pathway to policy work. 

“People are caught up in a complicated system and a complicated narrative. When I was young I often heard you needed to do things ‘the right way’ and ‘get in line.’ But even then I had a sense this wasn’t true. We are a land of immigrants.” 

Now an accomplished public policy professional with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, her previous work includes federal workforce development analysis for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, immigration policy research for the City of Baltimore and the Migration Policy Institute as well as teaching Public Policy at the American Studies Program in Washington, D.C. She hopes her wide array of experience serves the IRCSGV to strategically approach big picture questions the organization is wrestling with, as she also seeks to explore what could be possible through not-yet-considered partnerships given her connections to and knowledge of the local government landscape. Forging partnerships is a passion of Erin’s. Recognizing the work she has been able to do to make services more accessible and coordinated for people experiencing homelessness, she sees a similar level of support needed for the immigrant community and hopes to bring that about. 

Erin understands her call as one of fixing broken systems to better serve the people who too often go unseen and uncared for by those in positions of power, or worse, actively oppose a vulnerable people group’s flourishing. Though she initially thought she would go on to do international development and relief work, she came to a realization that much could be done on important policy issues in her own country. Her experience in her younger years taught her that immigration could be a divisive issue, but her education afforded her a framework for policy problems. She says that, “People are caught up in a complicated system and a complicated narrative. When I was young I often heard you needed to do things ‘the right way’ and ‘get in line.’ But even then I had a sense this wasn’t true. We are a land of immigrants.” 

“To be effective in my work, I am often trying to take a different approach of humanizing people and seeking to understand what is at the root of people’s positions and why they hold the positions that they do.”

Navigating a complex and divisive political landscape requires Erin to truly see and elevate the humanity in everyone, which she recognizes is a substantially harder posture for people to take. It is easier to scapegoat, and plenty do. She says, “I try to start from a place of curiosity. There are drivers and motivators behind everything. If I can understand what is behind the politics you are putting forward, then I at least have a fighting chance for figuring out a strategy for how to make change.” 

For Erin, her faith has informed how she views human beings. Politics and policy issues have a tendency to exacerbate the general instinct to categorize people. Countering that, she says “To be effective in my work, I am often trying to take a different approach of humanizing people and seeking to understand what is at the root of people’s positions and why they hold the positions that they do.” The first step to better understanding is the recognition of a person’s humanity. This is necessary for policy to ultimately create systemic change. And as a person of faith, she does not see government as a one-size-fits-all solution. Government has a critical role to play, as does the faith community, and both are needed to drive real change. 

Even in this polarizing cultural moment, Erin sees great opportunity in bringing people together – even people who strongly disagree. This moment requires relationship-building and the forging of common language and understanding. “Bringing people together just for the sake of learning about different experiences has some value on its own, but where I see the greatest opportunity for real change is in creating spaces for dialogue that can begin from a place of recognizing common core values, and then move from there to graciously articulate and understand where differences emerge. Those are the conversations and spaces that give me hope.”

“I try to start from a place of curiosity. There are drivers and motivators behind everything. If I can understand what is behind the politics you are putting forward, then I at least have a fighting chance for figuring out a strategy for how to make change.” 

And now, of course, a full-circle moment. Though she at one time considered pursuing immigration law, Erin landed on policy work to serve and empower marginalized communities insisting on the real possibility of social change.

We are thrilled for all Erin brings to the table and celebrate her contributions to the future of the Immigration Resource Center. Join us in welcoming her!