Julia I. Lopez was already retired for three years from her position as senior vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation in 2008 when she received a call from a head hunter who wondered if she might have any interest in serving as the president and CEO of the College Futures Foundation (then known as College Access Foundation of California).
Just three years old at the time, the foundation, which awards nearly $20 million in grants annually and has an endowment of about $500 million, was pushing a lofty goal: that college attainment and success be options for every student in California.
“I wasn’t looking for a job, but the opportunity was very attractive for me at the time because it was a start-up essentially,” says Lopez, who spent half of her career working in local and state government in New Mexico and California before transitioning into philanthropy in the 1990s, where she developed a broad portfolio working on a wide array of issues from food security to poverty, “I had an extensive background in California,” says Lopez. “I was good at philanthropy, but I had very little experience in higher ed.”
Still, it did not take Lopez long to make an impact in the education arena.
During her tenure at the College Access Foundation, she shifted the foundation’s strategy from simply being a grantor of student scholarships to facilitating and tracking data on college attainment in the state. In the process, her supporters say, she helped to change the policies, practices, systems and institutions to better support student success throughout California.
“Julia Lopez has been a leading champion of students and low-income populations throughout her career,” says Toby Rosenblatt, chairman of the College Futures Foundation’s board of directors. “She leaves a legacy to be proud of, and leaves College Futures at a good moment for new leadership to take the helm. The foundation is on a strong new trajectory to significantly improve college access and success for California students.”
Having spent her early years working in the San Francisco Department of Social Services, where she oversaw programs serving the city’s most disadvantaged residents, Lopez was ready to jumpstart a conversation about educational inequities when she took the helm of the foundation.
