Network for Public Education (NPE) President Diane Ravitch announced the appointment of Georgina Cecilia Pérez to the organization’s Board of Directors. Pérez, a former teacher, is serving her second term as a member of the Texas State Board of Education, representing students, parents, and educators in 40 counties in West Texas in a region that encompasses over 900 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.
Pérez is an El Paso native and proud graduate of Eastwood High School in the Ysleta Independent School District. Before state board service, she was an eighth-grade English Language Arts and Reading teacher, department chair, teacher mentor, and professional development educator in Ysleta ISD for more than a decade.
Commenting on the appointment, University of Kentucky College of Education Dean, Julian Vasquez Heilig, who is a founding member of the NPE Board, said the following, “Georgina’s background as a classroom teacher and her accomplishments as a Member of the Texas Board of Education bodes well for her service on behalf of communities on the NPE board.”
Georgina Pérez is deeply invested in serving the Mexican American community of El Paso. She was a passionate advocate for the development of the state’s Mexican American Studies course and the development of additional ethnic studies courses for Texas students. She founded Tu Libro, which has provided more than 500,000 books to students living in rural and impoverished communities in El Paso County. She helped create a library in Socorro, Texas, that provides more than 55,000 residents access to English and Spanish books and periodicals.
Pérez begins her three-year term on NPE’s board on January 1, 2022. “The board of NPE is very happy to welcome Georgina Pérez as a new member,” Ravitch said. “Her knowledge and experience as an educator and an elected member of the Texas State Board of Education will add enormous value to our deliberations and our planning for the future.”
