Paul Pereira

Paul Pereira, Program Manager for Beautify San Jose, has 23 years experience with the City of San Jose, ranging from neighborhood asset based community building through the City of San Jose Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) from 2001-2012, community development with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, to public safety and policy development as Senior Advisor to Mayor Sam Liccardo for 10+ years. Paul was one of the initial partners in the award-winning CommUniverCity collaboration between the City of San José, San José State University, and the neighborhoods in the Five Wounds/ Brookwood Terrace area. Previously, Paul had worked for various start-up efforts based in San Jose that focused on data and mobile applications during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Born in Massachusetts, Paul moved to San José at age 4, grew up in the neighborhoods east of Downtown, and lived in the downtown core while studying Political Science and Sociology at San Jose State University. Paul served on the City’s Youth Commission in high school and grew up volunteering with numerous San José community-based organizations, including History Park San José, Our City Forest, the Portuguese Community Center, and Five Wounds Portuguese National Church. Paul has been active as a Disaster Response Worker while working with the City of San Jose. He served in coordinated response roles for 17 emergency declarations with the City of San Jose since 2017, most recently in assisting with the development of an Encampment Management System to ensure health, sanitation and safety conditions are managed at the more than 200 active encampment areas in the City that contain over 6,500 unhoused residents. This EMS effort is currently a key part of the BeautifySJ effort. Paul strongly supports the concept of civic engagement and service and has volunteered for service projects for over 25 years. Paul understands the reality that transformation and improving a community takes a lot of effort, but most of all, it takes time and hope.