Dr. Perez has studied neural mechanisms contributing to the control of voluntary movement in humans with and without SCI for over 15 years. She received her BS degree in PT from the Catholic University of Chile, Ph.D. in PT from the University of Miami, and The Miami Project To Cure Paralysis. She completed 2 postdoctoral fellowships. One at the University of Copenhagen to study transmission in spinal cord circuits and one at NINDS to study transmission in brain circuits involved in the neural control of movement. Dr. Perez has a demonstrated record of successful and productive research projects and leadership in this area. She has advised and mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. She has been continuously funded by NINDS since 2005 and by the VA since 2013. She is a full member of the Member of the Function, Integration, and Rehabilitation Sciences (FIRS) study section and a member of the Board of Advisors for The National Center for Neuromodulation in Rehabilitation (NM4R). She is the Editor in Chief for Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation and Associate Editor for the Journal of Neurophysiology. She has received multiple awards including the Outstanding Neurorehabilitation Clinician Scientist Award by the American Society of Neurorehabilitation in 2017, the NINDS Research Program Award (R35) in 2021, and the Sir Ludwig Guttmann Award by the International Spinal Cord Society in 2022.