Meet Krista
Krista Perez is an author, small business owner, community leader, and mother living in Tacoma with her two children.
Born in Oregon and shaped by a rich bicultural heritage, she comes from a family of entrepreneurs and community builders whose values have deeply influenced her life and career. Her father hails from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, while her mother comes from a migrant working family that labored in the agricultural fields of Walla Walla, Washington, before settling in Oregon. An early childhood in Mexico instilled in her a profound appreciation for tradition, culture, and resilience.
At nineteen, Krista started her first business: a food truck that fed and nurtured community members. That space became a hub for Mexican immigrant families living and working nearby and was the start of her lifetime work to build a community where all belong. Her entrepreneurial inspiration came from her family who are in the trucking industry and run a successful family business which she has helped to cultivate since her childhood.
Krista graduated in 2016 with a degree in Law, Economics, and Public Policy from the University of Washington. Over the past decade, she has worked as a paralegal, Spanish teacher, housing navigator, economic development intern, and personal chef. She has overseen operations and green economy-based expansions of her family business and founded the nonprofit organization the Tacoma Women of Color Collective and co-founded The Community Market, a People of Color-centered market, and Perez Consulting, a diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion-based consulting business. She published her book, Unearthing Our Roots through Blue Cactus Press in 2021. Most recently, she has focused on her own consulting business and works at the Department of Commerce managing workforce and economic development grant allocations through the Community Reinvestment Fund.
Krista and her two children, ages 7 and 3, live on Tacoma’s eastside. They love the community they have built in Tacoma. They spend their free time during the summers at the Eastside Community Center playing basketball or attending the Boys and Girls Club, and play year-round sports through Metro Parks. Their favorite parks include Gas Station Park, Dawson's Playfield, Star Center and walking the Snake Lake trail.