A dedicated public servant, long-time attorney and executive, and the College of Arts and Science first women’s studies major is being honored as one of this year’s Distinguished Achievement Award winners.

Lisa Lopez (BA, women’s studies, 1976) graduated with a degree in women’s studies before the inception of the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). After graduating from Ohio State, Lopez would go on to earn her juris doctorate from Yale University. Lopez went on to serve as a litigator and employment lawyer in Boston before leaving private practice in favor of the public sector. Lopez spent nearly 25 years as an executive at Haemonetics Corporation, a medical device company with worldwide reach.

By Lopez’ own admission, Ohio State was not her first choice – she nearly attended the University of Michigan, where she hoped to attend law school – but ultimately made the decision to attend her father’s alma mater. “My only criteria for college, at the time, was that it had to be very big and it had to be very far away from home, in New Jersey.”

Lopez says that Ohio State not only satisfied those requirements but also came with another benefit: the timing of her arrival allowed her to be on the vanguard of the women’s liberation movement in Columbus. She says that the first rallies she attended included marching down High Street in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

“Feminism was alive and well on the East Coast but it took a few years to get to the Midwest. And I was in the right place at the right time. When I arrived in 1972, the women’s organization to join was the WSGA, the Women’s Self-Government Association. And their very big event of the year was the bridal fair. Four years later, the WSGA sponsored Women’s Week, which was a week of activism and rallies and camping out on The Oval. It was a very heady time.”

According to Lopez, her interest in politics led to her decision to craft her own major from a combination of history, sociology, literature and political science courses. “I thought I wanted to go to law school, at the time, and therefore, I had the luxury – when I decided that political science was not as satisfying to me as my women’s studies courses – to go through [the College of] Arts and Sciences, which permitted me to cobble together my own major, with my own independent study and my own advisor.”

Lopez says that her studies and experiences at Ohio State impacted her world view in a profound way. “There’s no question that the self confidence that comes from a scholarly look at – in my case – history, informs life choices about work, about family, about life’s partner, about community. And there are not only explicit role models, but also a sense of confidence and resiliency – particularly having chosen a career where I was often the only woman in the room.”

Following her retirement from Haemonetics in 2011, Lopez has spent much of her time working to better her community, outside of Boston. She has also volunteered as a pro bono lawyer at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), representing undocumented, unaccompanied minors seeking the right to remain in the U.S. through asylum and Special Juvenile Immigrant proceedings, which has reinforced her belief in the inestimable value of education.

“We have the opportunity, through education, give people a lottery ticket on life. I have seen, first-hand, how first-generation, non-English speakers living in urban Boston, coming from largely immigrant communities, can have a completely transformative life experience for not only them, but their families, through an opportunity for a good education.”

Lopez says that her women’s studies education has given her an added perspective on the challenges that women continue to face in America. “My concentration, in terms of women’s studies, was focused on political history. And that’s a really good grounding to teach life lessons about resiliency. Often, things look very bleak and the trajectory is not a seamless or even one.” She went on to say, “But, I draw enormous hope from my adult children’s generation and their own willingness to engage and their activism. It sounds trite that it’s the next generation that will make a difference, but it’s the next generation that will really make a difference!”

Upon hearing that she was to be honored with a Distinguished Achievement Award by the College of Arts and Science, Lopez responded with humility, saying, “Of the hundreds and thousands of alumni, I just cannot fathom that there are not many more worthy.” More than anything, Lopez says, she hopes to speak to the students who are following the path that she helped blaze, five decades ago.

“I am intrigued by the opportunity to speak with students, while I’m there. I do wonder whether we’re going to speak the same language, because I feel like women’s studies has progressed so far beyond even what I could have imagined, in the mid-1970’s. The philosophy of feminism is so far beyond what we were just beginning to grapple with then. And I suspect that I will learn far more from them than they will from me.”

The College of Arts and Sciences congratulates Lisa Lopez and all of the recipients of the 2022-2023 Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards. The five recipients will be presented with their awards on Friday, April 14.