Regina Peruggi

Regina Peruggi
Regina Peruggi delivers an address at Kingsborough Community College's June 2008 commencement ceremony.
President of Kingsborough Community College
In office January 2005 – August 2014
Preceded by	Fred Malamet
Succeeded by	Stuart Suss (interim)
Personal details
Born	c. 1947
Spouse(s)	Rudy Giuliani (1968–1982)
Alma mater	College of New Rochelle New York University Teachers College, Columbia University
Profession	Educator

Regina S. Peruggi (born September 1, 1946) is an American educator who was the President of Kingsborough Community College from 2005 to 2014, the first woman to hold that position in the college's 40-year history. She is also known as the first wife of Rudy Giuliani, her cousin, who would subsequently become Mayor of New York and a U.S. presidential candidate.

Peruggi grew up in a middle class family in The Bronx in New York City. She attended Roman Catholic parochial schools. She gained a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the College of New Rochelle in 1967.

She was married to Rudy Giuliani, who is her second cousin and whom she had known since childhood, on October 26, 1968 in a large Roman Catholic ceremony in Bedford Park, The Bronx. She started her career as a drug abuse counselor in a state jail. She worked as a teacher at the elementary school, college, and graduate school levels. In 1974 she joined York College of The City University of New York, then moved to Washington, D.C. with Giuliani and worked as a coordinator at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. The couple returned to New York in 1977, but had become separated to some degree. Then around 1980 she went back to school, and then earned a Master of Business Administration from New York University. Giuliani filed for legal separation from Peruggi on August 12, 1982; a civil divorce was issued by the end of the year. A Roman Catholic Church annulment of the Giuliani-Peruggi marriage was granted at the end of 1983 on the grounds that they had not obtained a church dispensation for second cousins once removed to marry; Giuliani later said he had believed they were third cousins. The two had no children.