Hi!

I’m Erica Smith.

  • I am an experienced, award winning, and internationally recognized sexuality educator

    who provides public and private sexuality education, consulting, training, and speaking. I am frequently sought out as an expert on various sexuality topics by major media platforms, podcasts, and publications. My main area of focus is sex education for people leaving high-control religions.

    I have been a sex educator for 25 years, receiving my BA in Women’s Studies from Penn State University and my Master of Education from Widener University's Center for Human Sexuality Studies.

    I developed the Purity Culture Dropout™️ Program in 2019 to help people learn all of the sex education that they missed growing up in purity culture.

  • In this program, I offer sex ed that is accurate, queer inclusive, trauma informed, compassionate, and comprehensive.

    Under the PCD name, I provide intensive individual work, a private community for sex ed and purity culture healing, support groups focusing on LGBTQ+ identity and divorce, webinars, one day intensives, and more. (Interested? Find out more here!)

    I provide one-on-one education and consulting sessions to anyone seeking sex ed support, and to established and emerging professionals. I am also an experienced speaker and presenter. (Find out more here.)

    I provide one-on-one education and consulting sessions to anyone seeking sex ed support, and to established and emerging professionals.

  • I am also an experienced speaker and presenter.

    For the majority of my career, I provided comprehensive sex education, HIV prevention services, and support to young women and LGBTQ+ youth detained in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system.

    My areas of expertise are sex education after high control religion, purity culture recovery, queer health, LGBTQ+ issues, adolescent sexuality and sexual health, LGBTQ+ youth, the sexual health needs of justice-involved youth, and sex education for young people.

    I’m skilled in writing, training, group facilitation, curriculum creation, and program implementation.

  • Do you need help with a sex ed related project? Just ask!

    The cornerstone of my work is the belief that access to compassionate, comprehensive, evidence-based sexuality education is a key component to wellness and equality for all. I have seen the life-changing impacts of sex ed in my work, whether my clients are trans teens in detention, “late bloomers” coming out of purity culture, or middle aged Christian moms.

    I am based in Philadelphia, PA but conduct work virtually with clients all over the world.

  • Erica Smith is an award winning sexuality educator and consultant with 25 years of experience. Throughout her career, she has provided comprehensive sex education and advocacy to young women and LGBTQ+ youth in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system, worked in abortion care, and supported HIV+ and transgender adolescents and their families. In 2019, she developed the Purity Culture Dropout™ Program to help people learn all of the sex education that they missed growing up in purity culture- sex ed that is accurate, queer inclusive, trauma informed, compassionate, and comprehensive. She has since worked with hundreds of people to help them learn about healthy sexuality after high control religion and was named one of the Most Influential LGBTQ+ Leaders in 2025 by The Philadelphia Gay News.

    Erica is the author of the forthcoming book The Purity Culture Recovery Guide: The Shame-Free Sex Ed You Deserve, coming 2026 from Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Erica shows “expertise, empathy, generosity of spirit, and the ability to educate without any hint of condescension.”

— Devi Abrams and Kelly Wolfe, hosts of Where Do We Go From Here? Pod

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