Rudy López is from a small steel town called East Chicago, Indiana. His father, who taught him the importance of hard work, was a migrant farmworker as a child and then a laborer in a steel mill for nearly 40 years. Rudy’s mother, an immigrant from México, was instrumental in shaping his faith and values which is one of the reasons he has dedicated his career to Social Justice by developing leaders and building power in disenfranchised communities. 

Rudy currently works for the Office of Professional Development at the California Department of Justice where he creates a leadership curriculum and trains DOJ managers and supervisors. Prior to this, he served as Director of Organizational and Community Outreach at Urban Strategies an organization that exists to improve the health, education, social, and economic conditions of marginalized populations (2017-2020). He also served as Executive Director for Interfaith Worker Justice in Chicago (2015-2016); Political and Field Director of the Center of Community Change in Washington DC (2007-2014); National Field Director for Wellstone Action (2005-2007) and the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute (2000-2005).

Rudy developed his organizing in the neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village in Chicago working as a community organizer with the Gamaliel Foundation. He used his organizing background to ground his electoral work to serve the needs of the communities around the country. Rudy focused much of his career on the passage of comprehensive immigration reform which, as a core faster for Fast4Families, allowed him to tour the country and hear the stories of those most affected by our broken immigration system and advocate for a solution.

Rudy continues to work with groups throughout the county on various projects. He has senior-level experience leading and managing large-scale national, regional and local campaigns and programs. He has led training sessions with diverse audiences across the country and in Latin America in both English and Spanish. Rudy lives in Los Angeles where he moved in 2016 to join his bride Rebecca. He is on the Leadership Team at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of LA. One of his favorite quotes is from the renowned poet Pablo Neruda –“Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera”, ”They can cut all the flowers, but they can’t stop the spring from coming”.