We are all looking for some good news in 2026 and we have some to share with you. Steven Lopez, MPP/MPH joined Georgetown University Center for Children and Families as a McCourt School of Public Policy Research Fellow.
Steven has been a long-time friend and collaborator of CCF’s from one of his prior gigs at Unidos US. He is currently a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and will be with CCF for one year to conduct his doctoral research.
Steven’s career has focused on advancing policy at the national, state, and local levels so that more children from historically underserved communities have the opportunity to be healthy and thrive.
Most recently, Steven served for more than two years in the Biden–Harris Administration as a Counselor to Secretary Xavier Becerra at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the Secretary’s senior leadership team, he advised the administration on a wide range of policy issues and worked closely with senior officials across the federal government. His portfolio included the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Indian Health Service, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), which included the Office of the Surgeon General. He also supported department-wide efforts focused on health equity, maternal health, food security, LGBTQI+ health, and the health workforce.
Before joining the Administration, Steven spent eight years leading health policy and advocacy at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization. Earlier in his career, he worked at the local level in the South Texas border region and at a county health department in the San Francisco Bay Area, grounding his policy work in local public health practice.
Originally from Exeter, California, a small town in the state’s Central Valley, Steven holds a BA from Stanford University and a dual master’s degree in Public Policy and Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a proud alumnus of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Public Policy Fellowship.
As a Research Fellow at CCF, Steven looks forward to drawing on his professional experience and DrPH training to advance CCF’s mission and produce actionable research to improve the health and wellbeing of all of America’s children. I could not be more thrilled to welcome him to CCF!