Perla has been the artistic director of the Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel since 2004. During this time, she has transformed the center into a vibrant, popular destination for students and the Jewish community seeking art and culture. Perla presents nine art exhibits every year in over two thousand square feet of gallery space at Hillel. She also mentors student artists, showcases emerging artists, introduces documentaries, book authors, and produces staged reading of original plays. 

Perla was born and raised in Bavaria, Germany. She left her home town of Munich as a teenager and was educated in the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Paris. She returned permanently to the United States for her college education (BA from UCLA, graduate work in English Lit. at Loyola Marymount University). Before taking the position as artistic director at Hillel at UCLA Perla was a successful theater producer in Los Angeles bringing such plays as "Woman in Mind" with Helen Mirren to the stage as well as many other West Coast premieres. In addition to being the past vice president of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, Perla sits on the board of the UCLA Fowler Museum Arts Council, and is a founding member of Temple of the Arts. She was recently elected to the board of the award-winning Los Angeles based theater company "Rogue Machine"