Milly Lopez was honored at the Texas Diversity Council 2018 Central Texas Best Practices & Diversity FIRST Awards Luncheon on Oct. 18. She received the Diversity FIRST Leadership Excellence Award.

Lopez serves as director of institutional partnerships for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE) where she manages collaboration and engagement efforts with 400+ partner organizations both on and off campus. She works with stakeholders to identify and cultivate industries of opportunities for students and community while assuring partnerships with nonprofits and corporations drive innovation and social impact.

Lopez was previously associate director for community and external relations within the DDCE where she worked on sponsorship and partnership initiatives, and directed a number of successful large-scale events and campaigns for the Austin community and Texas. Previously, Lopez was a graduate research assistant and later community engagement coordinator for Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success).

“Milly was a great addition to our community engagement and partnership work when she came on board in 2013. Since then, her excellent stewardship of our internal and external partnerships and her unique approach to helping determine what types of support will be most beneficial to the partners and the university have made a difference to many in the communities we serve,” said Dr. Leonard Moore, vice president for Diversity and Community Engagement.

Also at the Diversity FIRST Best Practices session earlier in the day, DDCE Executive Director Yulanda McCarty-Harris presented an interactive session “Practicing Unity through Civility,” with Lana Petru of Lider-ology Consulting Group which was attended by approximately 40 participants from corporations across Central Texas.