Faculty Profile

William Lopez

William D Lopez, PhD, MPH

  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Health Behavior and Health Equity
  • Senior Advisor, Poverty Solutions
  • Faculty Associate, Latina/o Studies Program

Dr. William D. Lopez's work and advocacy focus on the health impacts of law enforcement, including surveillance, arrest, incarceration, and deportation, in communities of color. He the author of the book, Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid.

Dr. Lopez also teaches a variety of public health classes, including the Social Determinants of Health, Health Program Planning and Health Communication, both residentially and online.

Dr. Lopez has been fortunate to collaborate both in his research and advocacy with the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights and Synod Community Services, which operate the Washtenaw County ID Program.

  • PhD, University of Michigan, 2016
  • MPH, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2008
  • BA, University of Notre Dame, 2005

  • immigration enforcement and health
  • law enforcement violence
  • health inequities
  • public health through storytelling
  • creative writing
  • community collaboration
  • advocacy and research

Lopez, W. D. (2019) Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lopez, W. D., and Castaneda, H. (2022). The mixed-status community as analytic framework to understand the impacts of immigration enforcement on health. Social Science and Medicine, 307, 115180.

Bess, K. D., Andrews, M., and Lopez, W. D. (2022). Teaching Social Determinants of Health as the World Burns Down: Strategies Learned From Teaching in a Pandemic. Pedagogy in Health Promotion, 8(2), 95-98.

Lopez, W. D., Collins, K. M., Cervantes, G. R., Reynosa, D., Salazar, J. C., and Novak, N. L. (2022). Large-scale immigration worksite raids and mixed-status families: Separation, financial crisis, and family role rearrangement. Family and community health, 45(2), 59-66.

Fleming, P. J., Lopez, W. D., Spolum, M., Anderson, R. E., Reyes, A. G., and Schulz, A. J. (2021). Policing is a public health issue: the important role of health educators. Health Education and Behavior, 48(5), 553-558.

Lopez, W. D., Kline, N., LeBron, A. M., Novak, N. L., De Trinidad Young, M. E., Gonsalves, G., ... and Kysel, I. M. (2021). Preventing the spread of COVID-19 in immigration detention centers requires the release of detainees. American Journal of Public Health, 111(1), 110-115.

Email: [email protected] 
Twitter: @lopez_wd
Address: 3822 SPH I
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2029

For media inquiries: [email protected] 

Areas of Expertise: Health Communication,  Health Equity,  Racism