President and CEO, College Access Foundation of California

A widely respected leader with broad and deep experience in philanthropy and government, Julia I. Lopez began serving as the President and CEO of College Access Foundation of California in November 2008.

Before joining College Access Foundation, Lopez served as Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation. In that leadership role, she provided oversight, management and evaluation of the foundation's strategic grantmaking, which awarded an average of $150 million per year. In her earlier work for Rockefeller, she served as the Director of the foundation’s Working Communities program, addressing urban poverty and education in the United States.

Lopez has also lent her talents to the California Legislature, the New Mexico Department of Criminal Justice and San Francisco’s Department of Social Services where, as General Manager, she oversaw programs serving the city’s most disadvantaged residents.

She is a graduate of Newton College of the Sacred Heart (now Boston College) and holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Lopez is also on the board of directors of Pacific Community Ventures and REDF (formerly the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund) and is a member of the Statewide Leadership Council of the Public Policy Institute of California.