Erica González Jones

Érica González Jones is an educator, lifelong learner, healer, and freedom dreamer devoted to helping people remember who they are. Rooted in the wisdom of her Mexica and Indigenous ancestors, alongside African, Irish, Spanish, and English lineages, she approaches life as both a student and a guide—an herbalist, forest wanderer, lover of the arts, and builder of communities grounded in curiosity, imagination, and care. She describes herself as an alchemist, villager, and whimsy curator, committed to living in alignment with what she calls Ancestral Intelligence and authentic ways of being.

Érica's work is animated by a deep commitment to learning, unlearning, and challenging colonial ways of thinking and living. She believes healing begins with remembering, reconnecting, re-Indigenizing, and reclaiming the wisdom that has always lived within individuals and communities. Her leadership is deeply relational, shaped by her love for family, her devotion to community, and her willingness to bring her full emotional self into every space. Whether she is exploring the forest, singing at the top of her lungs, or creating spaces for reflection and transformation, she invites others to imagine more liberated ways of living together.

As an Acosta Institute Fellow, Érica looks forward to learning alongside others who are committed to healing-centered leadership and collective liberation. She hopes to deepen her practice of remembering ancestral ways of being while co-creating communities rooted in authenticity, joy, imagination, and belonging—spaces where people can fully reconnect with themselves, one another, and the world around them.