Dr. Perez retired in July 2021 after a distinguished career in higher education and senior leadership with the California Community Colleges. Dr. Perez continues to provide consultant services for Presidents, Boards of Trustees, and public and private organizations to advance quality, equity, and excellence in education.

In 2022, he responded to a call for service in the California Community Colleges and became the Interim President of Fullerton College in July while the North Orange County Community College District conducted a search for a permanent President.

Dr. Perez began his higher education career as the assistant director of Admissions at Stanford University. Subsequently, he served as the director of the Educational Opportunity Program and Student Support Services at California State University, Los Angeles while also teaching Political Science and Chicano Studies. He implemented numerous outreach and retention programs at Stanford and California State University, Los Angeles. Selected as a policy fellow for the U.S. Department of Education, he became the Secretary’s senior policy analyst with expertise in financial aid, career education, TRIO, and youth employment. Upon returning to California, he was appointed the director of Community and Organizational Relations for the Educational Testing Service’s Western Regional Office and later promoted to Regional Office Director.

In 1997, Dr. Perez joined the National Hispanic University (NHU) in San Jose, California as the director of Institutional Research and was promoted to provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. He engineered the successful WASC accreditation for NHU as the first Latino non-profit independent senior college on the West Coast. In 2004, Dr. Perez was selected as the vice president of Student Services at Golden West Community College in Huntington Beach, California where he was a senior administrator engaged in construction, enrollment management, accreditation, and fiscal management.

On July 1, 2008, Dr. Perez became the President of the Moreno Valley Campus. In addition to transfer programs, Moreno Valley College prepares students for vocational careers as Emergency Medical Technicians, Dental Hygienists, Dental Assistants, and Bio Technologists.

Dr. Perez assumed the presidency of Los Angeles Mission College (LAMC) in May 2011, which serves the San Fernando Valley and is one of the nine colleges of the Los Angeles Community College District. LAMC enjoys a high transfer rate to four-year universities and colleges.

Dr. Perez has participated in numerous academic presentations, including his papers on the integration of academic affairs and student services at Oxford University, revising the California Master Plan in Higher Education at the University of Vienna, and a presentation on Exemplary Enrollment and Retention Strategies in Community Colleges at the Education Testing Service’s National Community College symposium. Dr. Perez also serves as the Chairman of the national Board of Governors for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities representing 550 two-year and four-year colleges. In 2017, he was appointed as a Trustee to the Los Angeles County Board of Education. Dr. Perez is also the Chair of the Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation established to serve K-12 districts and the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Dr. Perez graduated from James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, obtained his bachelor’s degree in Social Science Government at California State University, Los Angeles, and his master’s and Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Southern California.