In addition to being an advisor to first year students at Columbia, Erin Orjuela is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Hunter College School of Social Work and a Hospice Social Worker in Westchester. Born and raised in New York City Erin received her BA in Sociology/Psychology from SUNY Potsdam and a Masters in Social Work degree from Fordham University. She went on to earn a certificate from the New Hope Guild Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Post Graduate program.

For over 25 years she has worked with children, adolescents and their families in the following capacities; as caseworker serving runaway/homeless youth, a Youth Coordinator facilitating community based recreational programs, a Children’s Intensive Case Manager working with seriously emotionally disturbed children and their families, a Program Director developing residential and community based programs for mentally retarded and developmentally disabled children.

In addition to the above Erin served as Director of Victim Advocacy Services in Brooklyn working closely with the District Attorney’s office serving sexually abused children under the age of 11; Director of Collaborative Programs responsible for developing services in the Bronx for seriously emotionally disturbed children with substance abuse issues; Emergency Room Social Worker and also Administrator of a children’s mental health clinic in the Bronx.