Connie Perez-Andreesen is a Certified Public Accountant who began her career with a regional firm based in Kern County as a staff accountant and rose through the ranks to become one of only two Latinas to make partner in the 40-year history of the firm. The firm had substantial experience managing the accounts of major governmental, agriculture, and petroleum corporations. She assisted other partners in managing the firm’s multi-million-dollar budget.

In the Spring of 2017, Ms. Perez became the Controller for the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), which actively champions legislative and regulatory reforms for farm workers. She was appointed by the UFW Executive Board as Chief Administrative Officer on December 20, 2018, and National Vice President in November 2020.

Ms. Perez was also appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown as Commissioner to the State Lottery Commission and served as Vice Chair and Chair of the Audit Committee that oversaw the Commission’s 6.4 billion-dollar budget. She was the designated representative for Central California.

Ms. Perez served as a Board Member and Treasurer on the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, representing the interests of businesses across the central region from Yuba County south to Kern County.

Born in the City of Tulare, to Mexican immigrant parents, Connie Perez came from modest beginnings, living with her family at the Woodville Labor Camp, to achieving success as a partner in one of the most prestigious accountancy firms in California. Her father worked at the labor camp where she was raised after many years in the fields as a farm worker. Ms. Perez is a product of the Head Start Program. She graduated from Monache High School and Porterville College and thereafter moved to Bakersfield, where she attended Bakersfield College and California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB). She graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2000 from CSUB with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Accounting. Ms. Perez became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in 2002.

Ms. Perez believes that volunteering her time and supporting her community are salient objectives. She continues to be involved with many non-profit organizations in the community. She was recently appointed by the Bakersfield City Council to serve on the Bakersfield Public Safety/Vital City Services Oversight Committee. She also currently serves as a Board Member for Latina Leaders of Kern County, Bakersfield College Foundation, CSUB Foundation Chair, member of the CSUB President’s Latinx Advisory Council, and CAFWD (California Forward) board. Ms. Perez also served as a Trustee for the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Foundation. She was a Board Member and Treasurer for Children Joining Children for Success, an organization committed to helping foster children in Kern County. In 2012, Ms. Perez co-founded the first Career Day at her former grammar school, Woodville Elementary School, where fourteen speakers shared their career stories with students who were predominantly living at the nearby labor camp where she was raised.

Ms. Perez also served on the Supervisory Committee of the Southern California Edison Federal Credit Union and the California Budget & Policy Center, whose mission is to engage in independent fiscal and policy analysis and public education with the goal of improving public policies affecting the economic and social well-being of low and middle-income Californians.

Ms. Perez is a former board member of the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles. She also served on the California Democratic Party’s Finance Committee.

Ms. Perez is featured in the documentary funded by the Cal Humanities Community Stories Fund and CSUB entitled “Camp to Campus” (http://www.csub.edu/camptocampus/). The 90-minute film focuses on first-generation college graduates who have come from a migrant labor background.

Ms. Perez was honored by the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as Business Woman of the year; by Hispanic Lifestyle as a Latina of Influence; by the National Latina Business Women Association Los Angeles as a Woman of Excellence; by the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, based in Southern California, as a “Mujeres del Ano”; and by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants as an Experienced Leader, which is defined as one who has advanced to the highest level of leadership. Ms. Perez was inducted into the CSUB Hall of Fame in 2022.