The University announced Tuesday that it has named Gay Perez the new associate dean of students and executive director of Housing & Residence Life.
Perez is currently the associate director of Housing and Residential Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She will replace Bill Ashby, assistant vice president and associate dean of students, who has temporarily headed Residence Life for the past two years.
Perez aims to make an immediate impact on University life, as she plans to merge the Housing and Residence Life divisions.
"Bringing the Housing Division and Residence Life together under Gay's leadership will eventually result in a seamless student living experience, which our students deserve and quite frankly this organizational model has become the best practice," Ashby said. He added that Perez is "a perfect fit for the position."
She said she hopes to "create an organization that will actually benefit the students."
Perez said she hopes to improve communication and the effectiveness of services offered to students, but admitted it might take a while for the changes to reach fruition.
"I don't think the regular student who lives in the residence halls will see a big change right away, but it's my hope that the staff will see [a change]," Perez said.
The Housing Division and Residence Life supports Perez's goals.
"The time has come for a merged department at U.Va.," Ashby said in an email. "Student residents shouldn't be required to navigate a bureaucratic maze to get things done while in residence," he added, noting that this new organizational model already works at North Carolina, and that Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University are heading in the same direction.
In an email to the vice president of student affairs faculty, Dean of Students Allen Groves expressed excitement about Perez's appointment. "I believe that Gay will be a terrific leader of the combined Housing and Residence Life operations and a wonderful colleague to all across Grounds," Groves said.
Groves described Perez as a "double Hoo," as she received both a bachelor's degree from the College and a masters in education from the Education School before working as the Alderman Road Area Coordinator from 1991 to 1993.
Since then, Perez has worked at other housing and residence life programs at four other Atlantic Coast Conference schools: the University of Miami, Wake Forest University, North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Perez expressed her excitement about her new position. "For me it's like coming home," she said. "Having worked in the last 20 years at other housing programs in the ACC I feel like I've gained more experience, skills, and perspectives from these other opportunities, and I'm look forward to bringing them back to Grounds to positively impact the student residential experience."
Perez will join the faculty Dec. 14.
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