Valeria Lopez, MPH

Pronouns: she/her/ella

Valeria Lopez, MPH loves public health. She has worked with at-risk families, as well as college and high school students in the Sacramento area providing health education and outreach in the areas of mental health, food and nutrition, and physical wellbeing. She is a double Aggie, receiving her BS in Human Development and MPH at UC Davis. She loves working in mental health and is especially interested in working with first generation and Latine students, especially when it comes to supporting their mental wellbeing and building their resilience as they transition into higher ed institutions. Valeria wants the RISE Center to be an inclusive space where Bruins can rest, build community, and learn skills for thriving at UCLA. In her downtime, she enjoys going to the beach, watching trashy reality TV, playing tennis, and eating at different taco trucks in LA.

Favorite self-care practice:My favorite forms of self-care are grocery shopping, skincare, reading, playing tennis, and decorating my island in Animal Crossing.

Fun fact:I was in the 0.01% of Bad Bunny listeners on Spotify! 😄

How do you define resilience?Resilience is a person’s ability to overcome adversity and thrive/succeed. It’s a learning process that requires effort from the individual and support from others, whether that be family and friends, and community resources.

What does wellness mean to you?Wellness is holistic. It includes not only your physical wellbeing, but your emotional, environmental, and social well-being. There are factors that can influence these dimensions directly and indirectly, but there are also variety of tools we can learn to support each dimension.