Sylvia López, MPH, CHES, CPH

Sylvia Lopez is the Coordinator of Community Outreach and Engagement for the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. She leads efforts to expand, strengthen, and maintain ties with community stakeholders and directs outreach activities to build community capacity and implement programs to reduce cancer and other health disparities through education and research.

By working with valued community partners, Sylvia has carried out initiatives to increase colorectal cancer screenings at county medical facilities, trained community health workers on colon cancer awareness and screening, developed educational programs on vaping and e-cigarettes, and provided new opportunities for disseminating liver disease information among high-risk populations. She is deeply interested in adapting and disseminating culturally and linguistically relevant health education materials in underserved communities across Southern California. Sylvia also administers the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Community Seed Grant program, which has awarded funding to dozens of community-based organizations working to reduce health disparities.

Sylvia has a background in communications and journalism. Prior to joining UCLA, she served for many years as news reporter and anchorperson on KCAL9 and CBS2 in Los Angeles. She left broadcast news in 2015 to return to school and pursue a master’s degree in public health, graduating from California State University Northridge in December of 2017.