Nacy Erber

Nancy Erber grew up in Jamaica, Queens where her father lovingly tended a small vegetable and flower garden in their mostly paved backyard.

As a college and graduate student, she studied abroad in France and Germany, earned a PHD in Romance Languages from Cornell University and completed a second MA in Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at Hunter College, CUNY. She taught in adult education programs as a volunteer and became a professor at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, teaching linguistics, French and ESL. She also served as the chapter chair of the faculty-staff union at LaGuardia and as chair of the Language and Education department.

A longtime activist and volunteer, she participated in agricultural and river restoration projects in Central America and France and later worked with those international organizations to recruit new members. In New York City she co-founded the Association of Part-Time Faculty to advocate for better benefits and working conditions for adjunct teachers and continued as an activist and elected official in the CUNY union, the Professional Staff Congress. 

In East Hampton, she co-founded a community group, The Friends of Sammys Beach, that successfully advocated for the restoration of a local nature preserve and, more recently, co-founded ChangeHampton, a group focused on sustainable land use and native planting. She tends a small container garden and enjoys the woodland, native plants, grasses and Japanese-style pond on a modest lot in East Hampton's Northwest Woods, all tended and designed by the chief gardener, her spouse. Now retired, she works on freelance writing, editing, proofreading and translation projects.

Nancy Erber joined the ReWild board in December 2022.