A Practitioner Who Chose This Community

There are clinicians who end up in rural practice because it was the only option. Dr. Antonia Perez is not one of them. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Johns Hopkins University — among the most competitive graduate nursing programs in the world — along with board certifications in both psychiatric mental health and family practice. She could work anywhere.

She chose Coos Bay.

Growing up in a Latino family with deep roots in Texas and an understanding of what it means to navigate healthcare systems that weren't designed for you, Dr. Perez made it her mission to provide the highest level of psychiatric care to communities that historically have the least access to it: survivors of sexual violence, uninsured Latino families, people in rural areas where the nearest psychiatrist is a two-hour drive, and women whose mental health needs are often dismissed or undertreated.

Her training spans three exceptional institutions — Johns Hopkins, the University of Texas at Austin, and Catholic University — giving her a uniquely broad clinical foundation that integrates psychiatric expertise with family medicine perspective. She sees the whole person, not just the presenting symptom.