Research Assistant Professor

Expertise: Community resilience, community energy, urban policy and spatial analysis

Career Highlights:
Maria P. Perez Arguelles, PhD, is a research assistant professor at the Hobby School of Public Affairs. She has worked in various research roles at the Center for Public Policy at the Hobby School since 2020, where she has supported research projects on community resilience and natural hazards, as well as collaborative initiatives such as Texas Trends, a five-year survey in partnership with Texas Southern University to measure opinion shifts and policy preferences within Texas' changing population, and Texas Metro Blueprint, an actionable plan to ensure the long-term prosperity and competitiveness of the state's 26 metropolitan areas.

Perez has been a guest lecturer for the Master of Public Policy capstone class and co-teaches a workshop on Data Science for Energy Transition, a multi-university summer program supported by the National Science Foundation to train college students with the skills needed in the diversifying energy industry. Her research interests focus on sustainability, community vulnerability to disasters, and urban policy, utilizing spatial, quantitative and survey methods to develop data-driven solutions that inform policymaking. Perez holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and a master's degree in agricultural economics, as well as a PhD in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University.