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Stephen Perez
Stephen Perez
13th President of California State University, Chico
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; July 1, 2023
Preceded by	Gayle E. Hutchinson
31st President of San José State University (Interim)
	In office; January 3, 2022 – January 16, 2023
Preceded by	Mary Papazian
Succeeded by	Cynthia Teniente-Matson
Personal details
Born	1967
Education	University of California, San Diego (BA); University of California, Davis (MA, PhD)
Profession	University Administrator
Website	Office of the President
Academic background
Thesis	An investigation into the role of bank loans in the real economy (1994)
Academic work
Discipline	Economics
Institutions	Virginia Commonwealth University; Washington State University; California State University, Sacramento; San José State University; California State University, Chico;

Stephen Perez (born 1967) is an American academic and university administrator. He is the 13th and current president of California State University, Chico, and was formerly an interim president of San José State University.

Education and early career

Perez graduated with a BA in economics from the University of California, San Diego before earning his MA and PhD in economics from the University of California, Davis in 1994. He briefly taught economics at Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington State University before becoming a faculty member of California State University, Sacramento in 2001. At Sacramento State, he specialized in labor economics and sports economics and served as an assistant to the president for special projects, faculty athletics representative, and interim provost before being promoted to provost and vice president of academic affairs in the fall of 2019.^[1]^[2]

Career

San Jose State University Presidency

On November 22, 2021 California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro appointed Perez to serve as the interim president of San José State University after Mary Papazian, the previous president, announced that she would be resigning on December 21, 2021, in the aftermath of a sex abuse scandal.^[3]^[4] Perez assumed the office on January 3, 2022. Throughout his term as interim president, he worked to increase university enrollment and diversity.^[5] His term ended on January 16, 2023, when Cynthia Teniente-Matson assumed the office.^[6]

California State University, Chico Presidency

Six days prior to the end of his term at San Jose State, it was announced that Perez would be joining California State University, Chico as an interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.^[7] Perez would serve in this role through the end of the 2022–23 school year when on May 24, 2023, Chico State announced that Perez would become the school's president for the following school year.^[5]^[8] Perez assumed the office on July 1, 2023.