Prior to joining The Chicago Community Trust, López was the assistant director of research in the Department of Postsecondary Education and Student Development at Chicago Public Schools (CPS), where she developed the infrastructure for collecting and analyzing college enrollment and retention of CPS graduates as well as indicators on college planning and enrollment. She also served as a policy and research analyst in the Departments of Planning and Development and Research and Evaluation at the Chicago Public Schools. She received her BA in Sociology from Princeton University and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. After completing her masters, López worked on the Local School Council Project and the Annenberg Study at the Consortium on Chicago School Research, an independent non-for-profit education research organization. Her work at the Consortium and her volunteer work with Chicago high school students at the DePaul STEP program led to the pursuit of a Ph.D. in Education. López received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. The topic of her dissertation and primary research interest is the transition from high school to college for inner city youth.