Joe Perez

Biography

Having received advanced degrees in secondary education, Joe began a ten-year career as a high school teacher providing instruction in economics, Spanish, Bible, and computers. While in his teaching career, he furthered his graduate education, earning a doctorate in education with a double-minor in computers and theology. His career focus changed to IT in the early 1990’s when he started as a Computer Consultant at NC State University. Three promotions later, Dr. Perez ended his successful 25-year career at NC State as Business Intelligence Specialist when he took another promotion to become Senior Business Analyst at the NC Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) in the fall of 2017 and has since been promoted to Senior Systems Analyst and Team Lead. In addition to his full-time analytics/BI leadership role at DHHS, Joe was named Chief Technology Officer at a North Carolina corporation in October 2020. With more than 10,000 followers on LinkedIn and several professional certifications, Perez has stayed active in the IT, HHS, and higher education communities as a much sought-after resource, highly-recommended international keynote speaker, data analytics & visualization expert, and specialist in efficiency and process improvement. In 2020 alone, Perez spoke at more than two dozen conferences hosted by nine different countries on five continents.

Through the years, Dr. Perez has never lost his love for teaching, having been a guest speaker for many organizations and internationally-recognized podcasts. When he takes a break from work and speaking, he enjoys spending time with his wife of more than 30 years and their children, whom he says are the best things that ever happened to me. He also sings, plays the piano, composes songs, and has performed PSA’s and voice-overs for schools and other organizations. He also serves as music director to his church’s Hispanic ministry, teaches their Men’s Bible Fellowship class, and interprets sermons to Spanish or English, depending upon the audience. If there’s any spare time left, he enjoys publishing a monthly military newsletter (as Editor-in-Chief of The Patriot News), working out in the gym, and catching up on Star Trek reruns. “A busy life indeed, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I’m a firm believer that if I’m not innovating, then I’m stagnating,” says Joe.

Facilitating Innovation in a Post-covid19 World: Cultivating a Climate for Paradigm Shift

Renaissance philosopher and writer Machiavelli has been quoted as saying, “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” The importance of respecting personal space and practicing impeccable hygiene aren’t the only lessons learned from COVID-19. If anything, we’ve seen the incalculable value of innovative thinking, because a global pandemic certainly provides enormous motivation to leave the status quo behind. That said, how do you overthrow the status quo without sacrificing quality and security in the process? Learn the three key words needed (Recognize, Resolve, and Respond) to strike this delicate balance in this challenge for you to shift your paradigm, facilitate innovation, and be a catalyst for change rather than an antagonist.

Has COVID-19 made you see the need to adopt a more agile way of thinking? Where is your devops strategy now? Where do you want it to be as the industry recovers from this worldwide crisis? Do you intend to get it there by using the same methods that haven’t worked? It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. Is that how you want your legacy to be remembered? Do you project an image of being part of the problem or part of the solution? Find out how to be a catalyst for change (facilitating innovation) and NOT an antagonist (frustrating innovation). Discover three types of flexibility in leadership and work/life balance needed to make that happen in the aftermath of COVID-19.

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