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Michael Lopez

Michael Lopez

Data Strategist · Civic Tech & Nonprofit

Translating Complex Data into Community Action

Experience

2020 to Present

Child Poverty Action Lab

Four-role progression from analytics associate to director of data operations.

  1. January 2026 - Present

    Director, Data Operations

    Director role evolved in January 2026 with a sharpened focus on CPAL's Databricks migration, AI-enabled team workflows, and managing external data engineering capacity alongside in-house staff.

    • Leading CPAL's data platform migration to Databricks (Unity Catalog, Workflows, Lakebase + Lakehouse on AWS, Git-tracked orchestration), systematizing 35-40 pipelines from file-based storage onto unified cloud infrastructure
    • Manage a 6-person external data engineering team via vendor partnership executing on the internal data roadmap, alongside one full-time data engineer reporting directly to me
    • Built AI-enabled team workflows (Claude Code with custom skills and agents, MCP servers, prompt caching with the Anthropic API), meaningfully accelerating how we develop pipelines, write documentation, review code, and communicate with stakeholders
    • Develop internal tools that let non-data staff act on data without analyst intervention, including a parcel-level outreach tool with 20 active field-team users
    • Maintain the Dallas County eviction data pipeline (40,000+ records annually, daily updates to 12+ partners including the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center, the Princeton Eviction Lab, and Dallas Health & Human Services), now running on Databricks Python notebooks after migration from the original R implementation

  2. May 2023 - December 2025

    Director, Data

    Led data strategy, infrastructure, and operations for the backbone nonprofit working to reduce child poverty across North Texas. Built CPAL's data engineering function and assumed expanded scope during the org's CDO transition.

    • Built CPAL's data function from the ground up; led hiring for the org's first data engineer and prior analyst roles
    • Led the data org during CDO transition (Dec 2024 - Dec 2025): set department roadmap, hiring, vendor strategy, and budget; reported directly to the CTO
    • Oversaw development of an internal Shiny app suite (30+ apps) informing decisions across CPAL focus areas: housing, public safety, maternal health, benefits delivery, and criminal justice
    • Evaluated and selected the org's enterprise tooling stack: Databricks (chosen over Snowflake/dbt-Cloud after capacity assessment), Claude Enterprise org-wide, vendor data feeds (MySidewalk, DataAxle)
    • Built project management infrastructure in Notion now adopted across multiple CPAL departments

  3. May 2022 - May 2023

    Manager, Data

    Transitioned from individual contributor to project leadership, managing cross-functional data initiatives and mentoring junior team members.

    • Led development of R Shiny applications, shifting organization toward interactive data products
    • Contributed to development of northtexasevictions.org, a public-facing eviction data transparency tool
    • Mentored analytics interns; one intern subsequently hired as full-time analyst
    • Managed projects spanning afterschool programming, child care accessibility, and housing stability
    • Established data collection and sharing procedures that became organizational standards

  4. June 2020 - April 2022

    Associate, Data

    Early analytics team member who built foundational data infrastructure and reporting systems.

    • Created initial eviction data pipeline in R, laying groundwork for system now processing 40K+ records annually
    • Developed dashboards and reports in R, QGIS, Tableau, and ArcGIS for internal teams and community partners
    • Automated routine data processes, establishing repeatable frameworks used across the organization
    • Presented findings on housing instability, afterschool programming, and public safety to partner organizations
Earlier experience (4 roles)

Dec 2019 - May 2020

Research Project Assistant

UT Southwestern Medical Center

  • Conducted participant interviews and assessments for biomedical research projects
  • Analyzed data and produced reports for internal research findings
  • Performed literature and policy reviews; coordinated project logistics across departments

June 2019 - August 2019

Health and Social Policy Intern

Children at Risk

First exposure to the Dallas nonprofit sector. Taught me the gap between how policy works in textbooks and how it actually moves between research desks and state stakeholders.

  • Led policy research on early childhood development and school performance
  • Developed policy briefs on Texas education best practices for senior leadership and state stakeholders

Aug 2016 - Dec 2018

Research Coordinator

University of Texas at Dallas

My first management role: coordinating a lab and supervising 10–15 unpaid research assistants each semester. Volunteers respond to motivation and meaning, not pay. The muscle of running a small team came from here.

  • Managed research operations for the Developmental Neurolinguistics Lab
  • Recruited, trained, and supervised 10-15 research assistants each semester
  • Recruited 300+ participants from local schools and youth programs
  • Conducted community outreach, presenting findings to families and local organizations

May 2013 - May 2015

Research Assistant

Florida International University

  • Assessed pre-kindergarten children's spatial abilities and verbal intelligence
  • Trained research assistants on assessment protocols and transcription procedures
  • Recruited participants across Miami-Dade County schools

Education

2021

Master of Public Policy

University of Texas at Dallas

2015

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology & Anthropology

Florida International University

Selected Projects