Prior to her government career, Perry was a lecturer at the University of Maryland College Park in the history department (1969–1970).
Immediately before she joined the Foreign Service, Perry was the public affairs director and a broadcaster for WGMS/RKO Radio in Washington, D.C., special assistant in the Community Services Administration and the public affairs director for the Peace Corps, the ACTION agency, and VISTA.
[2] In the Department of State she was deputy ambassador in Madagascar (1998–2000) and in the Central African Republic where she coordinated the international diplomatic corps during a military mutiny (1996–1997).
In Washington, she was director of the department's Office of Social and Humanitarian Affairs overseeing U.S. liaison with United Nations Committees in Geneva and New York (2002–2004) following her service as diplomat in residence at Howard University (2001–2002).
Subsequently, she was the Monroe Paine guest lecturer at the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri Columbia (2013).