Erin Chan Ding is an award-winning freelance journalist with two decades of experience reporting, writing and editing for a variety of newspapers, websites and magazines. Her work has appeared in the The Washington Post, AARP, Chicago Tribune, National Geographic Family, The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Forbes, Time Out Chicago magazine, The Huffington Post, Chicago Health, AOL City's Best, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald and West Suburban Living magazine. She covers fitness, health, parenting, travel, politics and is passionate about exploring the intersections of identity, race, gender and justice. She also serves as a contributing editor to PolitiFact.
Erin also co-founded and co-directs of the national Freelance affinity group of the Asian American Journalists Association, where she has also served as chapter co-president and board member of the Chicago chapter and president and board member of the Michigan chapter. She's also a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Before transitioning into full-time freelance writing, she was a general assignment features writer at the Detroit Free Press. She has also served as the executive director of communications for the Evangelical Covenant Church, leading its bimonthly magazine, as well as a team that handled editorial, video, curricula, public relations, printing and social media. In 2021, Erin was elected in to an unpaid, nonpartisan position on the Barrington Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education in suburban Chicago.
Erin was born and raised in the Chicago area and received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University in 2003, where she graduated magna cum laude. In addition to journalism, she majored in history at Northwestern and completed an honors thesis on the Chinese in Mexicali, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain.
She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two kiddos. She's learning cello and practicing tae kwon do with both kids—they're all black belts! She's run 35 marathons and seven ultramarathons, including a 100-mile race she completed the year she turned 40. Someday, she hopes to go to Antarctica, which is the last continent she has left to visit.
Erin also co-founded and co-directs of the national Freelance affinity group of the Asian American Journalists Association, where she has also served as chapter co-president and board member of the Chicago chapter and president and board member of the Michigan chapter. She's also a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Before transitioning into full-time freelance writing, she was a general assignment features writer at the Detroit Free Press. She has also served as the executive director of communications for the Evangelical Covenant Church, leading its bimonthly magazine, as well as a team that handled editorial, video, curricula, public relations, printing and social media. In 2021, Erin was elected in to an unpaid, nonpartisan position on the Barrington Community Unit School District 220 Board of Education in suburban Chicago.
Erin was born and raised in the Chicago area and received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University in 2003, where she graduated magna cum laude. In addition to journalism, she majored in history at Northwestern and completed an honors thesis on the Chinese in Mexicali, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution and studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain.
She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two kiddos. She's learning cello and practicing tae kwon do with both kids—they're all black belts! She's run 35 marathons and seven ultramarathons, including a 100-mile race she completed the year she turned 40. Someday, she hopes to go to Antarctica, which is the last continent she has left to visit.