Liz Cedillo-Pereira

Chief of Equity & Inclusion
City of Dallas

An attorney and local government official, Liz Cedillo-Pereira serves as the chief of equity and inclusion for the city of Dallas. She has executive leadership oversight of the office of environmental quality and sustainability; the office of equity and inclusion, including the resilience, equity, human rights, fair housing and immigrant affairs divisions; the office of ethics and compliance; and 311 customer service.

Cedillo-Pereira was the founding director of the city of Dallas’ office of welcoming communities and immigrant affairs (WCIA), established in March 2017. In that capacity, she led the community-driven process to develop a comprehensive strategic welcoming plan for the city of Dallas that was unanimously adopted by the city council in 2018 and led to the city being certified welcoming community for the community-driven and wholistic approach to immigrant inclusion and incorporation.

Prior to joining the city’s executive management team, Cedillo-Pereira served as a presidential appointee in the Obama/Biden administration as the senior adviser to Director Sarah R. Saldaña at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, where she focused on advancing humane implementation of immigration policies. Additionally, she oversaw the development of the office of community engagement to foster trust and improve relations in communities across the U.S.

A proud Dallasite, Cedillo-Pereira has 20 years of experience at the federal, state and local level in law, policy development, social justice and community and civic engagement. She is married to Oscar Pereira, an aeronautical engineer, and they are blessed with Amanda, Gabriela and Oscar Samuel.