About the President
Dr. Steve Perez became Chico State’s 13th president on July 1, 2023, after serving as the University’s interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. As president, he intentionally focuses on building and maintaining strong teams that will work hard every day to support the success of Chico State students, colleagues, and the region.
Prior to coming to Chico State, Perez served as interim president from January to December 2022 at San Jose State University, where he kept the institution on an upward trajectory during a time of transition. Perez was previously provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Sacramento State. Over his two decades of service to that university, he also served as associate professor, professor, assistant to the president for special projects, faculty athletics representative, interim dean for the College of Business Administration, and interim provost.
During his time teaching, Perez taught macroeconomics at all levels, as well as econometrics, sports economics, labor economics, and mathematics for economists. His research has explored most macroeconomic topics, but a specific interest has been evaluating the ability of econometric techniques to discover the truth, issues of causality in macroeconomics, and sports economics. His articles appear in many economics journals, including The Journal of Sports Economics, The Journal of Monetary Economics, The Econometrics Journal, Economics Letters, The Journal of Economic Methodology, Public Finance and Management, The Journal of Economics and Business, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, The Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Applied Economics, and The Journal of Macroeconomics.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of California, San Diego, Perez received his PhD in economics from the University of California, Davis in 1994. He taught economics at Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington State University. before coming to Sacramento State in 2001.