Miriam Perez

Miriam’s work at Peer Health Exchange began in July 2017 when she was hired as a Program Fellow through the Northwestern Public Interest Program. As a Program Fellow, she was responsible for managing the college chapter at Northwestern University and the six high school partners on the North side of Chicago, as well as aligning the organization’s work on college campuses with a social justice framework. In part, this included diversifying college cohorts to more closely reflect the communities in which the organization works. Currently, Miriam works as Senior Program Manager, overseeing 200 volunteers across Northwestern and University of Illinois Chicago's college campuses, managing relationships with fifteen high schools across the North and West sides of Chicago, and launching an affiliate program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Peer Health Exchange is a national health education nonprofit whose mission is to empower young people with the knowledge, skills, and resources to make healthy decisions. In collaboration with partners, the organization aims to advance health equity and improve health outcomes for young people. To do this work, Peer Health Exchange delivers a comprehensive, skills-based health education curriculum to freshmen in high schools across five cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. The program focuses on three crucial areas of adolescent health—mental health, substance use, and sexual health—and operates using a peer model of health education.