David Lopez

David Lopez is Vice President, Growth Investments at the American Journalism Project. He brings 20+ years of experience launching, leading, and scaling organizations across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and entrepreneurial sectors.

As Founding Executive Director of Teach For America San Diego, he launched a regional operation from scratch. As Founding Chief Development Officer at Metro United Way in Louisville, he helped transform the organization’s financial position: growing annual revenue from $26 million to $52 million and the endowment from $2 million to more than $21 million.

At Teach For All, he took that builder’s instinct global. He strengthened the fundraising and development capacity of a network of organizations with more than $400 million in combined annual revenue, providing one-on-one coaching to social entrepreneurs across more than 60 countries. He also served as lead for the organization’s Matching and Financial Crisis Grants — convening global review committees and driving consensus on improvements to make grantmaking more effective and transparent. 

David’s leadership extends well beyond his professional roles. He co-founded Derby Pitch, a national startup pitch competition now recognized as the largest of its kind in the Midsouth. He has served seven years on the Louisville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board, including two years as Chair, and is a board member of One Louisville, the region’s economic development and chamber of commerce entity. He is also a member of Angeles Investors, the largest Latin/Hispanic angel investor network in the United States. Across all of it, he has contributed to causes and organizations that grow access to opportunity and expand civic participation.   

He comes to AJP with a deep appreciation for and commitment to the power of journalism to shape personal and community trajectories. He credits journalism with opening his mind to the world before he could afford to travel, and he has been a decades-long sustaining supporter of local public media. In his role at AJP, he looks forward to partnering with grantee CEOs and their boards to pursue and achieve their visions for growth and impact — enabling local journalism to build stronger communities across the U.S. 

David is originally from San Diego, California, and is now based in Louisville, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Sarah, and two kids, Isaiah and Sofia.