Erica Williams Simon is on a mission to change how we tell our most important stories. She blends the soul of a seeker with the savvy of a cultural architect, using storytelling as her tool for transformation. As Founder and Executive Director of Soul Story, a collective and media lab for culture-forward, digital spiritual voices, she’s equipping a new generation of leaders and storytellers to fill a world in crisis with faith, wisdom, and authenticity. She’s spent her career pushing boundaries across media, tech, and social impact to do just that.

In Washington D.C., Erica crafted innovative engagement programs on crucial social issues at Center for American Progress and Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. In L.A. and Silicon Valley, she built Snapchat’s Creator’s Lab from the ground up to make meaning and hold space for high-performing digital influencers; and for a decade she taught progressive clergy around the country how to amplify their voices in a noisy world as faculty at Auburn Theological Seminary. Whether as creative director and senior editor at Upworthy or host of an independent Rosario Dawson produced experimental talk show, she has always been clear about her mission to tell better stories about “who we are and how we want to live.” She has designed campaigns, made media and created sacred space with everyone from the White House to Kobe Bryant to artists and storytellers whose impact far exceeds their name recognition.

She is also a principal of Story Strategy Group, helping mission-driven organizations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Spotify Social Impact harness narrative for real-world change. In 2019, Erica published her first book, You Deserve the Truth, urging people to reclaim the power of story to live authentically. Now every thread of her journey from award winning political advocate to digital innovator to faith-rooted narrative and cultural strategist –comes together in Soul Story ’s mission to change culture with spiritual disruptors for a new age.

A proud Prince George’s County, Maryland native, Erica currently serves on the board of Cinereach.org, is a theology student at Princeton Seminary and spends most of her time making memories with her husband and baby boy.