Antonio López

Associate Director of Research and Advocacy, Ayudando Latinos A Soñar

East Palo Alto, California

Antonio López is the associate director of research and advocacy at Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting farmworkers, immigrant families, and the broader Coastside community through culturally rooted mental health, education, arts, and advocacy programs. He is completing his Doctorate of Philosophy in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University and uses poetry to advocate for equity across underresourced areas as San Mateo County’s 2025-2027 poet laureate. Previously a councilmember for the City of East Palo Alto from 2020 to 2023 and the city’s mayor from January to December of 2024, Antonio established the East Palo Alto Coalition Against Sex Trafficking, bringing together law enforcement, religious leaders, and elected representatives. Additionally, he ran a campaign that helped secure $700 million in local bond measures for K-12 school district youth programs, aimed at at-risk teenagers, which contributed to a decrease in city crime. This approach contributed to a measurably safer city of East Palo Alto, which recorded zero homicides for the first time in 2023 under his leadership. As an award-winning artist for his poetry collection, including “Gentefication” and “The Right to Remain Violets,” Antonio envisions more equitable realities for future generations.