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September 26, 2025 • 11 mins
Former Biden press officer Erica Loewe talks about the importance of sharing news of interest to African American community through outlets such as the Black Information Network.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good afternoon. I'm Andrea Coleman with a Black Information Network
at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundations fifty fourth Annual Legislative Conference,
and we are talking with Erica Lowe, who is a
former White House Chief of Staff for Public Engagement and
White House Director of African American Media Media from the
Biden administration. And so welcome, welcome, welcome. You are like
a friend to us.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I I y'all have been very good friends to me,
So thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, So bring us up to speed. What are you doing,
And first let me give you a little bit of
history about who you are for us, right, we are
now five years old. The Black Information Network is we
charted five years at the end of June, on June thirtieth,
and we were such a budding emerging network when we
came online and we found a friend in you. You
somehow included us in those press releases and gave us

(00:48):
access to interviews that as a new network, we weren't
quite certain if we were going to be able to
get otherwise, and so as we began, just thank you
to you for that because we're here now in large
part because they're friends like you who allowed us to
come in and engage in conversations that were important to
our listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, thank you for that, and I want to say
that I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
So grateful one that you exist. I can't believe it's
been five years.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I remember when you first started and I just thought
it was such an incredible concept because obviously, iHeart has
such a big footprint and to do something solely dedicated
to the black community shows one the commitment of the network.
But it just was it was so innovative. So I
was so happy we were able to do it and
bring you into the White House. And everyone was so
amazing to work with, you know, I remember even Tanisha
May she rest in peace.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
I mean, we had a really good run.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Angelus, Sarah, like so many of you have been such
a pleasure to work with. And I don't know what
your current relationship is with the White House, but I
know our doors were always open.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
They were they were and they were so grateful for that.
So what are you doing now, I take it that
you have Are you still in government or not?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Or listen, I tell people all the time black women
did their part and now we're on a break. Yeah,
I'm doing this twelve beaches in twenty twenty five. I'm
also a consultant. It's very hard to stay completely out
of the fight because there's so much going on. So
I work with some really dynamic black women that I'm
sure you know folks have heard of, and just kind
of do some behind the scenes work there.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
But I really believe that that me and the.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Ninety two percent need to sit down and let the
other folks handle what's what's going on? Right?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
We have life?

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah? Right, we let us off like we did the work.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
We did our part, and I encourage everyone who did
their part.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
To sit have a seat.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I know that's right. So tell me this now,
you said twelve beaches in twenty.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Twelve beaches in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Help me understand what that.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
So.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
I love the beach.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
It is my happy place. So I'm trying to be
intentional about it. My goal is to do it every month.
Sometimes I kind of double up on beaches. I'm from Florida,
so that's always easy to go home. But I've done Panama,
I've done the Bahamas, and I'm going to do Hondurs.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
I just I just want to go to the beach.
I want to see different beaches.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
There's twelve months in the year and I intend to
do at least twelve beaches this year and I've done
pretty well.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Oh that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Is this a blog or something that we could just
my life?

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Oh? Follow me on Instagram?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
It it'll, it'll, It'll definitely be on my Instagram.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
I love it. So talk a little bit, if you will,
Erica for people who are interested in engaging that space.
What does it take to build a career and that
would lead to the pathway or to the door of
the White House.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well, I think it starts with tremendous faith.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Oh. I am a person of faith, and I truly
believe that. You know, you have to believe in your ability,
your calling, and that that God's gonna always work it out,
because you can't just wake up one day and graduate
college and be like, I want to go.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
To the White House. And also, it's your network.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Your network is your net worth, and you have to
be really intentional about it.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
And people appreciate authenticity.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
So, you know, after college, I wanted to you know,
my parents were like, you need to go do this,
you need to go to do that.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I didn't want to do any.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of that, but I knew the one thing that I
could do to get them off my back is somehow
find a way to intern for Barack Obama. They were
obsessed with Barack Obama. So I applied to the internship.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
I got denied.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
I applied again, I got waitlisted. My cousin lived in Maryland.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
I came to d C. Because again there's that faith.
I came to d C. I moved into.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Her house, I slept on her couch, and I would
just meet as many people as possible, and I'd asked
them to meet other people, and eventually I met people
like Angela Rye, who you'll see get awarded at the
Phoenix Scala tomorrow, had their foster and others who just
kind of connected me with the right folks. And my
wait list turned into a yes. And luckily I had
already moved because of that faith. And I think maybe

(04:33):
Friday I was told yes, and I had to be
in DC by Monday. So, like I said, God works
it out, but you you know, faith, but that works
is dead, So you gotta have faith, you have to
do the work. I believed in my ability and I
got to the White House, and then a decade later,
I came back in a more senior capacity and it
has been an amazing ride.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
That's tremendous since and you worked with some Congressional leaders.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I am a child of the Congression Black Caucus.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
The CBC raised me, so I can't miss a legislative
conference even.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
When I try.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Jim Clyburn, I was his deputy communications director in his
leadership office. Maxine Waters, the chair of the House Financial
Services Committee.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I was her press secretary.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
And we did the transition from the minority to the
majority when she became.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
The first black chairwoman, and that was incredible. You know.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I was with Jim Cliburn during his king Maker heyday.
So I tell people I love working for occagenarian who
is extremely powerful and kind of in their prime.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, yeah, very much. So I'm still very much engaged though,
absolutely with that.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh absolutely, they are my forever bosses. I've been seeing
them kind of walk around here. They were very very
good to me, and none of what has happened for
me would have happened had they not given me those opportunities.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's tremendous. So skill sets, what are we looking at?
Certain college degrees, certain subjects you study, me are.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
You need a degree, but I don't think you necessarily
need a certain college.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
You can.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I always tell people, though young people, especially younger people,
that you should.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Go to grad school. I did not go to grad
school as my greatest regret.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
It works out, but it's much easier, especially for people
of color, if you have that graduate degree, especially after
I've got in a hiring position and I realized it's
very easy for people to discount you if someone else
has a degree, a higher an education degree and you don't.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
So go to grad school if you can.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
But like I said, I think it's authenticity, and I
think your network is really everything. You know, meet people,
go outside. Don't just sit at your desk. That's not
where the action is. This conference is a prime opportunity.
Literally sit at that table and just meet the people
that walk in here. Give them your elevator pitch. That's
how I got my first job. I was working the.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Door of an event.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think it was during CBC Week and I met
the head of a very prominent firm at the time,
and they hire. I gave them my resume, they hired me,
and that's what led to me meeting other people, and.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
People would come in the door.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I would tell them who I am, I would email them.
Meet people, wow, and don't be transactional either. Meet people,
you know, just check in.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
You don't have to necessarily ask for anything or be
helpful to them.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, free like when you're young, free labor is what
you got to offer.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
And I was always free laboring. And those people remember that.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Right that. That's so amazing too. Though, Just going back
to the administration for a moment, that they had an
office dedicated to African American media. What made that happen? Why?
And it was very important for us, of course, and
it was so beneficial for us, But it doesn't have
to be the norm. And that's an individual choice by
by each administration. What led to the creation of.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
That, You know my under don't I couldn't tell you
which administration started it, but I know under the Clinton
administration was called Specialty Media, and there was someone who
just kind of dealt with all the other media, but
it was primarily black media. And then over time they
they kind of separated it out because they realized that they.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Needed people for specific coalitions.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
So there was a director of American Media, there's a
director of Hispanic media. There was just a general coalitions
media and because a couple things, and this is what
I learned in my experience. One, you know, black media
for sure is there are truth tellers. For sure, they
offer invaluable insight. We can't ignore them. But oftentimes they
don't have the.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Resources to say, get to the press briefing.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Room and and move at the pace that a White
House would require that a CBS or an ABC can do.
So you need somebody who's making sure that if they
can't get on a plane immediately, they get that information.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
So I think that that's key.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
And then of course we just live in a world
where oftentimes there there there is just a certain subsection
of the population that's going to get more more attention
than others. And it was my job to make sure,
per the president and Vice president, that black media, black
people had a seat at every table.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Wow. Yeah, well, I tell you what. It made a
difference for us and we are so very appreciative still
to to this day. So how can people connect with you?
Where can they find you?

Speaker 3 (09:01):
And at the beach.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
On Instagram Erica Plow you know, I'm pretty active on
LinkedIn as well. Erica Pilo l oe w E like
the clothing brand. And yeah, you know, I'm around, I'm
in d C. But like I said, I'm also at
the beach protecting my peace. And we'll see what happens
with these midterms and in the general. And I'm slowly
becoming more active because I realize that there's there's just

(09:28):
a little too much going on to completely sit out.
But at the same time, you know, we all as
we know, we we put it all out there, we
gave it are all and you got to take care
of yourself and your family too.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah, So if you don't mind my asking, and I
understand if you you don't have a comment, but your
sentiment toward the president, considering everything that has transpired since
he left office. Uh, in the diagnosis that we've you know,
we've we've now learned about your sentiment towards he and
his family.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Oh, Joe Biden is a good man, Savannah. I tell
people that all the time. He is a good man, Savannah.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And I know there's been a lot of talk, whether
it's about health and what's happened and what's not And
you know, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are both tremendous
leaders I'm really happy that she is telling her story
because she absolutely speaks for a lot of us. And
you know, there were some good apples and there were
so bad some bad apples.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
But I think one.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Thing she's been very consistent about was her loyalty to
the president and the fact that the president gave us
all very good jobs, from the Vice president on down.
You know, he was a decent, a good man. He
was an old man though, and there was just no
denying that. But but I wish him the absolute best
and I think he also he put it all out there.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
He did his best, and I hope he's somewhere eating
ice cream and enjoying, you know, the remainder of his
life with his family and maybe on a beach.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
And you know, I have no doubt he's on Rahove
with beach and Delaware, hanging with.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
With his grandkids. Well, one last question. Your favorite beach
so far?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Oh my god, my favorite beach so far. It's probably
Mimi Bahamas. Okay, yeah, I really I enjoy seeing our
people on the beach and that was really good. And
my second one is probably Isla hol Bosh in Mexico
because you can't drop it. There are no cars allowed
on the beach, so it just seems cleaner. The air

(11:19):
seems pure.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Oh that is so wonderful, great inspiration. I've not been
to either, so we'll have to check those out.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
All right, maybe I'll start a blog. I'll let you know,
please do Eric.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Hello everyone, and your your firm is their firm a named.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Low profile strategy. So Eric lo.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
But you know, like I said, more beach less work.
But call me if you need me.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
We hope to see you in the future.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Thank you, thank you again. All right one, you too.
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