Eric grew up on a farm in Ottawa County, Kansas, and farmed there until returning to college. After completing his BS in Crop Protection and MS in Plant Pathology at Kansas State University, he completed his PhD in Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Then he moved to Illinois to manage a research farm for the University of Illinois near Monmouth in northwest Illinois for 16 years. In 2011, he assumed the position as agronomist-in-charge, managing the Kansas River Valley and East Central Kansas Experiment Fields.