Dr. Erik Jon Byker, Ph.D., is a full professor at the Cato College of Education and the Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Byker is the President of the Executive Board of the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the Honor Society for International Scholars. He founded the TedXCraverRoad Countdown, focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also the faculty advisor for The SDG Club at UNC Charlotte. During the 2019-20 academic year, he was UNC Charlotte’s resident director at Kingston University in London, UK.

Dr. Byker has a Ph.D. Degree in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy from Michigan State University. His fields of specialization include curriculum foundations, educational technology integration, global citizenship education, and social studies. Dr. Byker's research agenda is comparative and international in scope as he has conducted ethnographic field studies in Cuba, England, Germany, India, South Africa, South Korea, and across the United States on the development of global citizenship and the uses of educational technology in elementary schools.

Dr. Byker is a 2017-2018 fellow with the Global Teacher Education Fellowship and continues to serve as faculty mentor for the fellowship. He has authored over 45 journal articles, 20 book chapters, and 6 co-edited books.