The Aspen Institute

Christian Lopez (Waltham, Massachusetts) is a doctoral candidate in Social Policy at Brandeis University and a Project Associate at the RAND Corporation. Christian is committed to using research as a tool to deliver evidence-based approaches to policy change and her research interests include health equity, particularly improving access to health care, assessing health care in schools to promote student achievement, and learning about immigrant integration initiatives from across the country. At RAND Christian has worked in a diversity of research areas, primarily: assessing the implementation and evaluation of an early alcohol and drug use prevention program; observing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the country specifically assessing outreach and enrollment activities and strategies for local Medicaid expansion; classroom observations of summer learning enrichment programs assessing summer learning loss and school transformation initiatives; improving nicotine patch adherence for Latino HIV- positive smokers; and contributing to the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience project. Prior to joining RAND she served as Research Assistant at the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California and as Health Program Manager at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund. Christian graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master in Public Policy and from Pitzer College where she majored in Chicana/o Studies and Political Studies. Participated in Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program America’s Future Summit.