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Teach For America New Jersey works in partnership with communities to create an equitable education system that prepares 50,000 New Jersey students each day for success. Locally, Perez has served as executive director since 2020. She began with the organization in 2003 as director of alumni affairs. Before taking on the top job, most recently, she was senior managing director of program continuum, overseeing all programming aspects. The network launched in the Garden State in 1993 with 24 corps members. Since, it’s expanded that figure to 1,800 members and alumni teaching in classrooms, leading schools, advocating for students and working with community-based organizations. Under Perez’s leadership, TFA NJ recently brought on its largest corps member cohort since before the pandemic. Earlier in 2024, she commented on the importance of collaboration while marking the introduction of more than 60 new TFA teachers to the state at an event hosted by the My Brother’s Keeper Newark initiative. “This work would not be possible without partners like the Newark Opportunity Youth Network, which has championed our newest educators from the very beginning of their journeys and helped them appreciate the power of centering student voice,” Perez said at the time. Other TFA NJ goals currently in pursuit under Perez’s leadership include working to double early literacy in local communities, partnering with JerseyCAN’s Legacy of Literacy Coalition, providing Science of Reading programming to corps members and alumni, and bringing TFA’s virtual tutoring program – Ignite – to local schools — resulting in nearly 700 additional hours of student learning.