Erika Donalds

Erika Brynne Donalds (; born 1980) is an American conservative activist from Florida who primarily advocates for school choice. She leads education policy at the America First Policy Institute. Her husband, Byron Donalds, is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Early life and education Donalds holds a bachelor's degree (Florida State University, 2002) and a master's degree (Florida Atlantic University, 2006) in accounting.

Career Donalds worked for New York investment management firm Dalton, Greiner, Hartman, Maher & Co., LLC (DGHM) from 2002 until 2018.

Education activism In 2013, following a dispute with administrators of her second child's public school in Naples, Donalds placed her child in a private school. She became involved in local efforts (via the group Parents ROCK) to deploy state education funds to establish a charter school, the Mason Classical Academy.

Donalds was named by Florida House of Representatives Speaker Richard Corcoran to the 2017-2018 Constitution Revision Commission. Governor Ron DeSantis appointed her to the Advisory Committee on Education and Workforce Development and the Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees.

In 2017, Donalds founded OptimaEd, a company that provides management support for several classical charter schools in Florida.

Donalds currently leads education policy at the America First Policy Institute. She is also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and serves on the advisory boards of Classical Learning Test, Moms for Liberty, and the Independent Women's Forum Education Freedom Center.

In October 2025, Donalds embarked on a campus speaking tour with the Leadership Institute. Calling the U.S. education system "Wasteful, bureaucratic, monopolistic", she advocated for privatizing the student loan system and increasing the number of groups administering standardized testing.

Personal life She married Byron Donalds on March 15, 2003. They have three children and live in Naples, Florida.