Erika Eng joined Discovery in 2016, becoming Executive Director in 2021. Upon graduating SUNY New Paltz in 2004, she pursued an aerospace career before following her dreams in non-profit work.

Her passions lie in leadership, community, inclusivity, and education. She is Chair of the Women’s Leadership Network of Greater Bridgeport, on the Board of Directors for Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC), Leadership Greater Bridgeport (LGB) , and CORE Advisory Board for Bridgeport’s STEM Ecosystem.

An LGB alumna, she received 2022’s Rising Star Award. As a child, she attended a museum magnet school, and notes the unique perspective it provides her role.

There comes at a point in our lives when one of our DEVELOPMENTAL tasks is LIFE REVIEW, which Bernice Newgarten labeled young-old (65-74), middle-old (75-84) and old-old.

As a kid, my passion and talent was playing sports. I enjoyed working hard. Training and practicing would hopefully give me a head start.

After co-founding a residential therapeutic community for teens (VERITAS), I began working in the then-emerging field of gerontological social work: first, in-home care matching poor older woman with poor younger, often immigrant, women of color; then we founded the first geriatric mental health clinic (SPOP) in New York City.

My good fortune came when my mentor, Dr. Rose Dobrof, invited me to join the training faculty of Hunter-Brookdale Center on Aging. We developed training for senior center, home care and nursing home workers.

As an athlete, I figured I would get a good head start at 25 learning from those aged 85. I’ve learned that our time on earth is brief and therefore we have earned the right to use our time as we uniquely desire.

Now that I’ve aged in Aging, and treat older people in supportive psychotherapy, my purpose converges. I work, in part, to counteract the stereotyping and isolating reductionism of the social pathology of Ageism (see “Why Survive” by Butler).

As I retrospect, introspect and prospect the goal of conserving my energy to invest in Freud’s suggestion, “to work and to love” becomes more underscored.

Hopefully I’ll do both in my 8th decade as a gerontological social worker in Wilton, CT, and in all of my personal and professional relationships.

SoundWaters is a recognized and trusted organization locally and in the Long Island Sound region. We have sustained relationships built on shared value and trust for over three decades that includes community, school, business, and political leaders. We are financially sound and committed to to accountability and transparency.

We are committed to ensuring that no child or school will be excluded from our programs due to an inability to pay. Knowledge about, and access to, educational enrichment and the benefits of Long Island Sound are far too limited already for so many in our region. The generosity of our supporters enables our work, whether it’s an education sail aboard the Schooner SoundWaters, summer camp scholarships for children, STEM education or workforce development at our Coastal Education Center and the Cohen SoundWaters Harbor Center. Typically, around 50% of the students we teach are from low-income communities and receive full or partial scholarship assistance.

Varsity Head Coach: Ian Tapsall