Perez-Cantu will be responsible for the daily operations at eight rural health clinics located in Burleson, Lee, Leon, Madison and Robertson counties.

"St. Joseph Health System is positioned to expand and improve the quality of health services throughout the Brazos Valley, and particularly in rural communities," said Perez-Cantu. "Rural residents rely on these clinics as their primary source of health care, so it’s important that we provide them with the highest quality of care and educate them about how to stay as healthy as possible. We have a great staff in place to do that."

Perez-Cantu has served with SJRHC since 1999, starting as a Lead Exercise Physiologist for Cardiac Rehabilitation then serving as a Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. While serving in the Cath Lab, he received his Master of Health Administration from the Texas A&M Health Science Center in May of 2005.

"It is a blessing that we are able to promote someone from within the system to develop their skills in creating an administrative role geared entirely for the St. Joseph rural clinics," said Reed Edmundson, Vice President of St. Joseph Rural Hospitals.

Perez-Cantu and his wife Janna, who is a registered nurse at SJRHC, have two children.

St. Joseph Regional Health Center, a member of St. Joseph Health System, has been providing health services to Brazos Valley residents since 1936, when the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio purchased St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan. Today St. Joseph Health System includes four hospitals; eight rural health clinics and two long-term care centers serving residents of the Brazos Valley.