Jazmin Peralta

As a visionary, transformative justice scholar-practitioner and relational thought leader with nearly 20 years of experience advancing equity, inclusion, and belonging across higher education systems, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations, I hold a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration, where I developed advanced expertise in higher education policy analysis, systemic reform, and institutional transformation.

My work sits at the intersection of equity-centered policy, organizational change, and liberation-focused practice. I specialize in advancing higher education policy that dismantles structural inequities, with a particular focus on the impact of the carceral state on postsecondary institutions in support of systems-impacted students. Across public and private institutions —and through co-founding a worker-owned justice consulting cooperative—I apply data-informed strategy, legal frameworks, and a critical anti-oppressive lens to design and implement sustainable, justice-oriented institutional change.

As Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Pratt Institute, I lead campus-wide, data-driven equity and belonging strategies for a community of over 7,000 students, faculty, and staff. Advising senior leadership on equity-focused policy reform, inclusive practice, and accountability systems that drive measurable cultural and structural transformation. My leadership is rooted in collaborative governance and building cross-functional partnerships, with a strong track record of translating complex justice frameworks into actionable, measurable outcomes that strengthen institutional capacity.

I bring a trauma-informed, restorative, and transformative justice lens to this work, integrating lived experience, data insights, and culturally responsive strategy. My approach operationalizes radical empathy, community care, and shared accountability as core drivers of institutional change. I focus on building infrastructures that actively reshape conditions to support belonging, agency, and thriving for historically disenfranchised communities.

This work is deeply personal as an Afro-Latine, first-generation, queer, gender non-conforming, and neurodivergent person. These lived realities ground my commitment to advancing social and political consciousness and to designing equity-driven environments that are life-affirming, accountable to the communities they serve, and enable individuals to fully engage, lead, and flourish.

• Doctor of Education, Higher Education Administration – Northeastern University
• Master of Science – Higher Education, Student Affairs –Purdue University Global
• Bachelor of Arts – Spanish Language & Literature and Mass Communication – Florida State University