Dr. Lopez authors a whitepaper highlighting research on two case studies from the New Mexico Corrections Department and the Massachusetts Department of Correction to highlight the transformative impact of innovative educational initiatives facilitated by Orijin’s tablets and learning platform.

Dr Lopez and Dr. Rhea Ballard-Thrower publish research on Inside Out model of Advanced Legal Research course offered to incarcerated students. The LIRT of the American Library Association chose it as one of the top 20 instructional articles for 2023.

Dr. Lopez serves as a Second Chance Ambassador. Read her blog post on Unlocking Potential: The Importance of Second Chance AND Fair Chance Hiring Practices.

In this SmartBrief OpEd, Dr. Lopez writes about the need for fair opportunities for incarcerated individuals to reskill, reintegrate, and rebuild their lives to break the incarceration cycle.

Dr. Lopez and Dr. Rhea Ballard-Thrower, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian for the University of Illinois in Chicago write about the implementation of an Advanced Legal Research course for incarcerated and traditional postsecondary students.

Hear Dr. Lopez discuss the importance of Correctional Institutions and Institutes of Higher Education getting to a “yes” on providing meaningful educational programming to incarcerated students.

Dr. Lopez partnered with AWS and APDS to pilot a course whereby incarcerated students earned their AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification.

Leonard Bishop, a student incarcerated with the DC Department of Corrections is elected as ANC Commissioner, representing not only residents in the DC Jail, but the neighborhood in which the jail resides.

Washington Business Journal reports on the valuable partnership between APDS and AWS facilitated by Dr. Lopez.

APDS co-founder Art Finn discusses ground-breaking technologies that would benefit incarcerated students, including the pilot program facilitated by Dr. Lopez with APDS and AWS.

Amazon discusses the cloud certification program Dr. Lopez facilitated with APDS and AWS to bring cloud certification opportunities to incarcerated students.

Dr. Lopez joins colleagues to discuss how to increase and improve STEM opportunities in correctional settings to students. Sponsored by the Education Development Center and STEM Ops.

This article discusses the use of technology for incarcerated students.

Dr. Lopez partners with MIT’s Brave Behind Bars program and Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui to offer a coding course to students in the DC DOC.

Dr. Lopez leads a team to launch a Project Based Learning initiative with students in the DC Jail to devise solutions to the District’s rise in gun violence.

NPR reports on a Project Based Learning Showcase in DC, created by Dr. Lopez and her team.

Channel 7 news in Washington, DC covers Dr. Lopez’s Project Based Learning Showcase, where students answered the guiding question, “How can we reduce gun violence in the District?”

On page 12 of this issue of the COABE Journal, Dr. Lopez reflects on the benefits of leveraging technology for incarcerated individuals during a pandemic lock down.

Interested in starting a student-led newspaper? This Washington Post article discusses a simple but successful start.

The Washington Post reports on a credit-bearing post-secondary program with Georgetown University that Dr. Lopez and her team brought to the DC DOC.

Hear Dr. Lopez speak for an audience at a US Department of Education Symposium. April 2019

C-Span’s Book TV produces two stories about the Free Minds Book Club, operating across the country in federal prisons. You can hear Dr. Lopez speak on the May 13 episode at around the 13:30 mark, but it’s worth watching the entire story for inspiration!

Reading and writing can provide a profession, a passion or an escape from reality. In Washington, D.C., the Free Minds Book Club positions the activities as mechanisms through which incarcerated people can express themselves in healthy and constructive ways. As Jeffrey Brown reports, inmates who participate in the organization have a much lower recidivism rate than the national average.

It’s possible to implement a variety of educational programs in a carceral space in a short amount of time with minimal resources. Read about some of these program ideas that Dr. Lopez implemented in this article regarding a visit to a jail by the State Board of Education in Washington DC.

Brown Political Review posits that “Nowhere are the failures of public education and the American criminal justice system more apparent than in the daily lives of incarcerated minors in the United States.” This article covers a bit about Dr. Lopez’s role in the promotion of quality education for incarcerated students.

“Music in U.S. Prisons” is a unique opportunity for incarcerated students to learn how much of the music we enjoy today, music that inspires us, found its origins in the elimination of freedom. Dr. Lopez invites Georgetown University professors and students inside for this life-changing experience.

Oxford University students join incarcerated students to explore poetry as a form of social awareness.

Bryonn Bain, UCLA professor and artist, brought his one-man show produced by Harry Belafonte to incarcerated students, along with his director, Gina Belafonte, a Kennedy Center theatre crew, and passion for giving justice-involved individuals a voice.

Dr. Lopez and her team of students chat with presidential-candidate Julian Castro about the importance of programming in American prisons.

In 2018, Dr. Lopez partnered with Georgetown University to launch the Prison Scholar’s Program, a credit-bearing initiative for DOC students. As part of their lecture series, GU hosted Kim Kardashian to speak about her efforts around criminal justice reform and film part of her documentary.

Dr. Lopez and her team bring Georgetown University’s School of Law Street Law Program to DC DOC scholars.

The New York Times reports on the political struggle to keep correctional education forefront on the minds of our nation’s leaders. Dr. Lopez is invited to weigh in on the subject.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons gains its first (and only) Superintendent of Schools as Dr. Lopez is appointed to build a school district inside the prison network.

Justice Department officials announced a package of federal prison reforms intended to better prepare inmates for a safe return to their communities. Listen to a brief discussion about the plan and Dr. Lopez’s intended role.

Transforming the educational experience and the institutional culture of a maximum security prison for juveniles and the young people confined therein was a work of passion for Dr. Lopez and her team.

As a public school administrator, Dr. Lopez led a group of teens in a state award-winning anti-bullying initiative. Read about it in an Amarillo Globe News article.