Elizabeth Perez

Elizabeth Perez is a Native American with Latin roots, service-disabled veteran with a proud history of advocacy, entrepreneurship and public service. She has faced abusive relationships, single motherhood, combat injuries and homelessness. She persevered and secured a job with a construction company and out of necessity, started her own construction company, GC Green Incorporated focused on energy saving solutions for older homes.

Through her journey she recognized many small businesses were scamming real veteran owned businesses out of work by claiming they too, were veteran owned. She wanted to be part of the solution and joined local veteran boards to bring awareness to issues the community faced. Her business began gaining traction and the White House honored and was named a Champion of Change for clean energy initiatives. Liz was then offered and appointed by the California Governor to a position as the Deputy Secretary of Minority Veterans at CalVet where she developed the ‘CalVet Pathway to Citizenship’ program and assistance was provided for deported veterans. She was also a Tribal Veteran Representative connecting Native Americans to the benefits they earned while serving. In addition, she designed the ‘CalVet Pathway to Inclusion’ connecting the veteran LGTBQ community with local resources. Liz was also heading the Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) program which gives veteran business owners a contracting leg up in the contracting process. Elizabeth served as a Board member serving a term on the State of California Veterans Board. She was a Fellow for Operation Free Fellow in Southern California for eight years which is a nationwide coalition of veterans who recognize that climate change is a major threat, and support fast, bold actions. Elizabeth has an extensive, varies background ranging from contracting, advocacy, business owner, diversity and inclusion champion, environmentalists, program developer, coach, trainer and speaker. Liz has an MBA from Syracuse University and a BS from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.