Erica Wrencher

Get to Know Us

Erica Powell Wrencher, PhD, is a community-engaged Black mama-scholar with roots as a high school public educator and community-based cultural worker. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Master of Arts in Teaching, and a PhD in Educational Studies and Cultural Foundations. Her research and role as the Assistant Director in ICEE have opened opportunities for facilitating and co-creating pockets for knowing—spaces for reconstituting people in their place and purpose. 

In ICEE, Erica oversees Communications, the Referral Desk, Collaboratory, and helps to manage the P2 Collective Scholarship Fellows Program. Additionally, she serves as a thought partner with colleagues in ICEE’s effort to build the capacity of community-engaged faculty and staff. She is most interested in foregrounding ways to nurture a culture of care within partnerships and has a deep passion for facilitating human connection (with self and others) in the belief that this kind of connection shapes the way we act individually and collectively in our work and world.  

Publications

• Wrencher, E. (2025, 6 20). We Got Us: The Process of Engaging Youth as Participants and Co-Researchers. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 31(1) doi: 10.3998/mjcsl.5805
• Wrencher, E. J. P., Aya, K. N. B., Getrouw, J. T., Mena, N., & Ferguson, J. (2025). Black wo/mxnist praxis interventions: Toward a more democratic education. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2025.2474543
• Ward, E., E. Janke, E. Wrencher, H. Goodner, T. Mitchell, and M. Hempill.  2024. “Faculty Community-Engaged Scholars Choosing to Come and Stay: Alignment Between Individual and Institutional Identities and Values.” International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement 12 (1). https:/​/​doi.org/​10.37333/​001c.127561.
• Howell, Kristy Wittman, Emily M. Janke, Erica J. Wrencher, and Madeline Kujabi. Continuity and Change in Community Engagement at UNCG. Excellence in Community Engagement and Community-Engaged Scholarship. Greensboro: University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 2024. Digitally available: https://communityengagement.uncg.edu/research_collabs/publications-and-reports/