Erika N.L. Harold, Miss America 2003

As Miss America 2003, Erika Harold promoted the community service platform Preventing Youth Violence and Bullying, speaking to more than 100,000 students about the consequences of bullying and the benefits of making positive choices.  Ms. Harold also helped release Fight Crime, Invest in Kids’ bullying prevention report at the National Press Club; served as the national spokesperson for the National Center for Victims of Crime’s Teen Victim Project; and discussed peer-to-peer harassment on numerous television shows, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNNHeadline News, The O’Reilly Factor, and an episode of PBS’s Emmy award-winning teen series In The Mix.  During her year of service, Ms. Harold also championed the Children’s Miracle Network and the USO (United Service Organizations).  In recognition of her child advocacy, Ms. Harold was named one of Fight Crime, Invest in Kids’ “Champions for Children” and received a leadership award from the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Ms. Harold is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Illinois and a 2007 graduate of Harvard Law School, where she won a Boykin C. Wright Memorial Award for appellate advocacy in the Ames Moot Court Competition.  Upon graduating from law school, Ms. Harold worked as an attorney in Sidley Austin LLP’s general litigation practice group.  Ms. Harold was active in the law firm’s pro bono efforts, helping to represent a man on Alabama’s death row in post-conviction proceedings, and teaching Chicago Public School students about the U.S. legal system as part of the Lawyers in the Classroom program.  Ms. Harold is currently an attorney in the litigation group of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.  Additionally, Ms. Harold serves on the board of directors of Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners and their families, and has presented faith-based messages in prisons throughout the country.