Gina Perez is a cultural anthropologist and Professor in the Comparative American Studies Department at Oberlin College. She received her Ph.D in Anthropology from Northwestern University (2000) and her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame (1990). Perez is the author of The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement and Puerto Rican Families (California, 2004), Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC, and the American Dream (NYU, 2015) and co-editor of Beyond El Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America (NYU, 2011, with Frank Guridy and Adrian Burgos, Jr.). Her current research focuses on the role of faith based communities in organizing in Latina/o communities in Ohio, including sanctuary practices and intra-faith and cross-racial solidarity efforts.