Heather F. Perfetti is an experienced, high-level executive with a diverse history of working in complex educational environments in which she has a passion for driving impact and leading organizational change. She became President of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on July 1, 2020. She is the current Chair of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC), a member of the Learning Evaluation and Recognition for the Next Generation (LEARN) Commission, and a board member of the Kurdistan Accrediting Association for Education (KAAE).

Perfetti appears before a number of audiences and through podcasts, including Weave’s Accreditation Conversations and the EdUp Experience, in which she discusses the value of accreditation and its impact on the student experience. She has also offered insights on accreditation with outlets such as Inside Higher Ed, Higher Education Digest, Community College Daily, INSIGHT into Diversity, Trustee Quarterly, and the U.S. News and World Report. In 2022, she was ranked No. 39 on City & State Pennsylvania’s Higher Education Power 100 List, recognizing the most powerful educators in Pennsylvania, and she was ranked No. 31 on City & State New York’s 100 Power List of the most powerful people in New York’s higher education community in 2021. Perfetti holds the following academic credentials: Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Science (M.S.), and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.).