Ms. Barnes is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Rare Disease Advisory Council, an executive branch state agency. Erica graduated from the University of Minnesota with a master's in communication disorders and was a speech-language pathologist prior to shifting her work to improving health systems for the rare disease community. She has over a decade of advocacy and non-profit leadership experience, having co-founded with her husband Chloe's Fight Rare Disease Foundation following the death of her daughter. Erica has a number of committee roles related to rare diseases. She chairs the NIH funded Global Leukodystrophy Initiative Clinical Trials Network patient advocacy consortium, is a member of the Minnesota Prescription Drug Affordability Board, participates in a number of taskforces in the Minnesota Department of Health, and holds membership in the Center for Orphan Drug Research at the University of Minnesota.