Dr. Keila N Lopez often describes herself as a public health physician who happens to also be a pediatric cardiologist and health equity researcher.  Her clinical and research portfolios reflect a longstanding commitment to addressing health disparities and public health initiatives, where she leads teams to conduct multidisciplinary work using large databases and GIS mapping to better understand the connection between health, socioeconomic status, neighborhood level factors and access to quality healthcare. She has participated in several health related educational town halls in Spanish and Portuguese both nationally and internationally on public health related topics, as well as community level initiatives focused on underserved populations. In 2020 she was the only Latina and pediatrician appointed to Houston Mayor Turner’s COVID-19 Health Equity Response Task Force. 

Dr. Lopez’s leadership is evidenced by a broad portfolio of work outside of pediatric cardiology as a leader in health equity research, where she has had several NIH grants. She has also won several awards for her work, and uses her skills to continue to drive progess in pediatric clinical research, and was a member of the writing group for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s 2025 Committee on Strategies to Enhance Pediatric Health Research, and is the immediate past Chair of the American Heart Association Congenital Cardiac Defects Committee.

Dr. Lopez is currently a Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Cardiology at Colorado Children’s Hospital, where she serves as the director of faculty development and health policy for the heart institute, as well as the Child Health Policy Scholar for the Farley Center. She continues to clinically see patients on the inpatient and outpatient sectors as well as conduct health equity research.  She completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Chicago. She subsequently completed the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health in Minority Health Policy and Healthcare Management in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her medical training by completing a fellowship in pediatric cardiology with a focus on cardiovascular imaging at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX.