Her work focuses primarily on literacy and culture in diverse communities, investigating everyday home/family and community literacy practices, particularly among immigrant and refugee communities. She also researches educational opportunities with respect to ESL, literacy, and higher education for adult refugees. Perry is the 2012 recipient of the Literacy Research Association’s Early Career Achievement award and their 2007 J. Michael Parker Award for research in adult literacy. Her university teaching experience includes undergraduate and Master’s-level teacher education courses in literacy, doctoral-level seminars, and student teacher supervision; her other teaching experience includes teaching in multi-grade classrooms in Colorado, teaching in southern Africa through the Peace Corps, and teaching adult refugees in the U.S.