Fr. Mark Lopez, SJ, is a Jesuit priest who works with the Jesuit Mission in Cambodia. He previously served as parish priest of marginal rural communities in Kampong Thom province from 2017-2020 and as the Battambang Prefecture’s Vicar Delegate from 2015-2020, while also teaching Pastoral Theology at the Phnom Penh Seminary and the Battambang Catechetical Institute. Prior to volunteering for the Cambodia Missions, he managed various social/environmental-justice programs in the Philippines, working with NGOs such as the United Nations Development Programme, Jesuit Volunteers Philippines, Environmental Science for Social Change, and the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (the Philippine Jesuit Province’s socio-political apostolate).
Fr. Mark enrolled in LMU’s Ed.D. Program because of the program’s explicit orientation towards social justice leadership, which he believed would strengthen his capacity to contribute to the Jesuit education apostolate and to support the work for marginalized and ultra-low-income communities in the Asia-Pacific region.
For his dissertation research, Fr. Mark looked at what it takes for school communities in the margins to promote learning that is transformative, humanizing, and that cultivates depth. Using frameworks for deeper learning developed through education research over the past decade, Fr. Mark explored the experiences of learners in a K-12 school in a rural part of northern Cambodia, investigated how deeper learning was enacted, valued, and fostered there, and highlighted challenges and opportunities for promoting deeper learning. His broader area of interest lies at the intersection of education, systems-wide approaches to organizational change, and cultural determinants of social-justice transformation.
Regardless of where he is missioned henceforth, Fr. Mark is committed to seeking out opportunities to accompany, serve, and advocate for people who have been pushed to the margins of life and to help transform structures that keep them there. He intends to use the privilege that being a Jesuit priest affords him as wisely and effectively as possible. The LMU Ed.D. Program has strengthened his resolve and capacity to do so, especially through the work of education. For that, and to all those who have mentored, encouraged, and taught him, he will forever be grateful and will dedicate this continuing life’s work.
Fr. Mark received the 2023 Arrupe Doctoral Student Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which recognizes a distinguished doctoral graduate who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement related to DEI during their time as an LMU doctoral student.