Ruth Perez received her undergraduate training in Biology at the University of Texas, El Paso, her graduate training in Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, and her postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurology of Harvard Medical School in the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a founding member of the faculty at the Pittsburgh Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Dr. Perez’s research focuses on the cellular and molecular biology of protein trafficking and protein function with regard to proteins that aggregate in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies to delineate the normal functions of proteins implicated in such diseases hold promise to identify targets for therapeutic intervention. Recent honors include a Carl Storm Travel Fellowship, Gordon Conference, Biology of 14-3-3 Proteins, Queen’s College, UK as well as the Winter Conference on Brain Research Travel Fellowship, and Travel Fellowships for the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. Dr. Perez serves on the Joint Steering Committee for Public Policy of the Society for Neuroscience and is a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, several foundations, and scientific journals, including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Neurochemistry, and the Journal of Neuroscience.