Rudy López is the Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), a national nonprofit organization that advances the rights of working people by unifying diverse faith communities into action through shared principles, such as justice, dignity and respect.

Rudy is from a small steel town called East Chicago, IN where he currently resides. His father was a migrant farm worker who then became a union member at Inland Steel Co. His mother was instrumental in shaping his faith which is one of the reasons he has dedicated himself to social justice and has built a career developing leaders and building power in disenfranchised communities. As the Political Director for the Center for Community Change (2007-2013), he worked with groups all around the country to register, educate and turn-out hundreds of thousands of voters in low-income communities and communities of color. Rudy served as Wellstone Action’s National Field Director (2005-07) training grassroots leaders on how to manage campaigns and run for political office. He was also the National Field Director of the Chicago-based U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute (2000-05) and oversaw Latino leadership development programs and voter-registration drives across the nation.

Rudy developed his organizing skills in the neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village in Chicago working as a community organizer with Gamaliel affiliate the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations (1998-99). In the last two years, he  focused solely on the passage of comprehensive immigration reform as a senior organizer for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) based in Washington DC. He was one of the core fasters for Fast4Families and toured the country lifting up the urgency to pass comprehensive immigration reform. He has appeared on numerous media outlets stressing the importance social justice through active community engagement.

Rudy attended Indiana University where he studied political science. He is a choir member at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and enjoys attending spiritual retreats and pilgrimages. One of Rudy’s favorite quotes which gives him encouragement and peace comes from the poet Pablo Neruda, Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera; They can cut all the flowers, but they can’t stop spring from coming.