The Ford Foundation welcomes Lourdes Lopez as a newly elected member and the first artist to join its Board of Trustees. Ms. Lopez will serve a term of six years, set board policy for numerous topics, and oversee internal and independent audits while a trustee. As the Artistic Director of Miami City Ballet, Chairwoman of Miami City Ballet School, and Director of Morphoses—a New York-based dance company she co-founded in 2007 - Ms. Lopez firmly believes in arts education and the transformative power of arts and culture.

Born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami, Ms. Lopez attended the School of American Ballet with a scholarship awarded from the Ford Foundation. Their vision with the award was to expand opportunities for arts participation and strengthen America’s leading cultural anchors. At 16, Ms. Lopez joined New York City Ballet as a corps dancer and was eventually promoted to soloist and principal dancer. Ms. Lopez expresses how much the efforts by the Ford Foundation to strengthen arts in America impacted her life and helped fulfill her dreams.

Ms. Lopez’s impressive list of accomplishments also includes Executive Director of the George Balanchine Foundation, co-founder of the Cuban Artists Fund, and the first Hispanic women to head a major ballet company in the United States. Additionally, she worked as a cultural arts reporter for WNBC-TV in New York, served as dance faculty at Barnard College, and has served as a dance panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Her efforts do not go unnoticed—she has received an award from the American Immigration Law Foundation for her accomplishments and contributions to society as a Cuban-American, and the Jerome Robbins Award recognizing her lifetime devotion to dance.