Luz Lopez

 Luz Marilis López believes in strength-based and culturally responsive partnerships to advance health equity, social work, and public health practices around the globe. As the Global Health Core Director at BUSSW’s Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health (CISWH), she has been working in Nicaragua in collaboration with the Superemos Foundation domestic violence program, a Boston Medical Center and Dorchester House medical brigade, and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in Esteli (UNAN-FAREM), conducting workshops on violence prevention, education, and trauma care. In Uganda, Dr. López is collaborating with the social work program at Makarere University to address the mental health needs of immigrants, refugees, and displaced persons—many survivors of war and sexual violence. 

Dr. López is a faculty affiliate of the Boston University Center for Forced Displacement and collaborates in their Border Studies Program at the border of Rio Grande Valley Texas and Mexico. She also conducts an annual summer cultural immersion course and research experience in Puerto Rico, where MSW students work with individuals who are homeless and in recovery from substance use. These students gain invaluable experience with outreach and community-based participatory research approaches for Latinx and other racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse groups.

Dr. López is an advisory board member of the National Hispanic & Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network. At BUSSW, she also serves as director of the dual degree program in social work and public health (MSW/MPH).