Carmen Perez is an activist and community organizer who served as one of four national co-chairs of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. She is the President and CEO of The Gathering for Justice, a nonprofit founded by Harry Belafonte dedicated to ending child incarceration and addressing racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

Early Life and Career

Upbringing and Education Perez grew up in Oxnard, California, in a multicultural community. After the death of her sister Patricia in an accident, she committed herself to youth-oriented community work. She earned an associate’s degree from Oxnard College and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She worked as a bilingual probation officer, assisting young women reentering the community from the juvenile justice system.

The Gathering for Justice (2008-Present) In 2008, Perez moved to New York City to work as the national organizer for The Gathering for Justice, an organization founded by Harry Belafonte in 2005 to eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system through Kingian nonviolent direct action. She became executive director in 2010 and later assumed the role of President and CEO, leading the organization for over a decade.

Justice League NYC and Direct Action

Co-founding Justice League NYC (2013) In 2013, Perez co-founded Justice League NYC, a task force of criminal justice professionals, activists, advocates, artists, and formerly incarcerated individuals focused on reforming criminal and social justice systems in New York City and State. The initiative brought together diverse stakeholders to create policy blueprints for systemic change.

March2Justice (2015) Perez helped organize the March2Justice, a 250-mile march from New York City to Washington, D.C., calling for criminal justice reform legislation. The effort drew attention to policing practices, sentencing reform, and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Women’s March Co-Chair

2017 Women’s March on Washington Perez served as one of four national co-chairs of the Women’s March on Washington held on January 21, 2017, alongside Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Bob Bland. The march drew an estimated three to five million participants across the United States and became one of the largest single-day protests in American history. Perez’s contributions included facilitating the creation of the mobilization’s Unity Principles, leading the Artist Table and Honorary Co-Chair selection, and recruiting over 500 organizational partners.

Women’s March Organization (2017-2019) Following the march, Perez continued involvement with the Women’s March organization. In 2018 and 2019, the organization’s leadership faced public scrutiny regarding allegations of ties to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. The original co-chairs, including Perez, departed from the organization’s board in 2019 amid the internal leadership transition.

Digital Political Impact

Perez’s influence on digital politics includes:

• Using social media platforms to amplify criminal justice reform campaigns and mobilize supporters
• Leveraging digital organizing tools to coordinate the Women’s March, which relied heavily on Facebook events and collaborative platforms
• Building visibility for grassroots campaigns including Free Meek Mill and March2Justice through online advocacy
• Demonstrating how community organizers can use social media to bridge local activism with national movements
• Contributing to the model of decentralized, digitally-coordinated mass protest that defined the post-2016 political landscape

Organizing Approach

• Coalition-building across diverse communities using digital and in-person engagement
• Integration of Kingian nonviolence principles with modern digital organizing strategies
• Cross-platform communication to connect local criminal justice reform efforts with national audiences
• Use of social media to document and publicize direct action campaigns

Perez’s work illustrates how community organizers have used digital tools to scale local advocacy into national movements, connecting criminal justice reform, civil rights activism, and mass political mobilization in the social media era.