A graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana and Florida State University, Erica Doerle Ray received her doctor of audiology degree from the University of Florida. With a deep passion for helping others, Erica started her own audiology private practice that served the hearing impaired across Louisiana’s Acadiana region with multiple locations for 25 years. She also co-founded the Louisiana Academy of Audiology. In addition, Erica was incredibly dedicated to volunteer work through Dominican Republic medical missions, Honduran water project and addiction treatment centers.

Upon selling her practice in 2017, Erica was excited to embark on a new journey that would allow her to share her expertise in audiology with other parts of the country. As a team director of audiology sales over a seven-state region, Erica enjoyed practicing audiology and traveling the Pacific Northwest region. During a trip back home to Lafayette to visit her family, Erica had the opportunity to participate in the first Love Our Schools serve day that took place in July 2019. Witnessing the tremendous community-wide efforts made by 3,000 volunteers to revitalize eight schools across Lafayette Parish, she was moved beyond words and began to feel a calling to something new.

Recognizing how much this foundation’s various initiatives aligned with her passion for helping others, Erica decided to join the William C. Schumacher Family Foundation in January 2020 as Director of Operations. Since then, she has led many of the initiatives supported by the foundation such as Love Our Schools projects focused on supporting the Lafayette Parish School System (LPSS); Link & Learn that works to provide LPSS students equitable access to broadband; Southwest Louisiana/Acadiana Responds focused on disaster relief and recovery; expansive efforts across the U.S. to provide PPE and educational resources for healthcare workers and those in need in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and water well initiatives in Zambia to help lift communities out of severe poverty. In May 2022, Erica was honored to accept the position of Chief Executive Officer for the foundation.