Professionally, Dr. Derrick Jones Lopez works within the Detroit Schools Community District as an Assistant Superintendent for High Schools.  In this role, which seeks to transform the instructional model for the largest school district in the State of Michigan, Dr. Lopez is utilizing each of his many and varied experiences to mobilize the caring adults within the system to improve their collective practice to improve the educational, social, and emotional outcomes for the students that he serves.

Dr. Lopez obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. His dissertation is entitled, Federal Educational Policy: The Complexity of Local Implementation- A Promise Neighborhood Case Study.The core of the dissertation inquiry identifies and names the barriers that organizations encounter as they seek to collaborate with school systems to implement holistic, wrap-around programs and services for students and their families. His theory of action is simple: by calling out those challenges with specificity, we can develop strategies and utilize implementation tools to lower those barriers and obtain better collective efficacy of program implementation and better outcomes for the children and families of our communities. Bro. Lopez has also earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Dartmouth College; a Juris Doctor cum laude from Cornell Law School; and a Master of Education Administration from Marygrove College.