Dr. Christy Perez is an Afro-Latina public theologian, historian, journalist, content creator and policy strategist whose work centers the intersections of incarceration, public health, and structural inequality. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dreaming Justice Project based in Atlanta, where she leads initiatives focused on reentry support, harm reduction, political education, and decarceral policy, and she serves as State Gender Policy Manager at Georgia Equality, advancing statewide advocacy on gender justice and health equity.
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Dr. Perez was named one of the Top 30 Inspirational Women to Watch for in 2026 by NY Weekly Magazine and she is the author of Practicing Freedom: A Dreaming Justice Handbook for Faith, Abolition, and the Work of Repair. Dr. Perez earned her doctorate from Amherst Theological Seminary while incarcerated, pursuing higher education through independent study and academic sponsorship, an experience that now directly shapes her scholarship and policy analysis on prisons, health systems, and reentry. She is a Marvel Cooke Abolitionist Journalism Fellow, a Writing for Justice Fellow with the INCITE Institute at Columbia University, and a Senior Journalism Fellow with The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects. Her journalism and commentary on mass incarceration, health disparities, and social policy have appeared in outlets including HuffPost, Filter Magazine, Business Insider, and The Appeal, and she is the recipient of the 2024 PJP Stillwater Award for Best News Story.
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Based in Atlanta, Dr. Perez is a nationally recognized journalist, speaker, consultant, and community educator who brings an interdisciplinary lens that bridges theology, public health, and policy. Drawing from both lived experience and rigorous research, her work focuses on the health consequences of incarceration, the role of carceral systems as de facto public health institutions, and the advancement of harm reduction, decarceral policy, and community-based models of care. Follow her on all social media @UnCagedChristy.