Alumni Profiles
Alumna Leads Common Cause
“Making the political process a less complicated and intimidating experience lies at the root of my interest in public policy,” says Christine Lopes ’97 (social thought and political economy), newly named executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “By tearing down some of the hurdles people face in actively participating in government, we can create a better overall political system. I’ve had a number of rewarding positions with supportive and encouraging bosses,” including most recently State Representative Byron Rushing, 2nd assistant majority leader in the Massachusetts House, for whom Lopes was deputy chief of staff for the past year and a half.
Common Cause Rhode Island is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes representative democracy by ensuring open, ethical, accountable, and effective government processes at local, state and national levels. It is a chapter of the national organization, which educates and mobilizes its members to advocate on issues impacting all levels of government. A search committee unanimously chose Lopes, after nine months of considering more than 40 candidates from around the country. Says Daniel Siegel, president of Common Cause, “In Christine Lopes we have found…the energy and intelligence necessary to carry on the extraordinary legacy left by [retiring executive director] Phil West,” who led the organization since 1988.
“My UMass Amherst education in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences was instrumental to my professional success,” says Lopes. “And it wasn’t just the education I got in the classroom,” she notes, referring to her participation in many of the registered student organizations on campus. “I gained the confidence to take chances and strive for excellence in everything I do. To this day when prospective employers look at my resume, I get the most comments about being president of the Student Government Association. I’m proud of that and continue to list it on my resume as political experience, because it was my introduction to politics.”
Her SGA days gave Lopes many skills she continues to use. “I learned to strategize, develop work plans, articulate an argument, lobby legislators and, most important, prepare for meetings,” Lopes recalls. “And my professors gave me the tools and information I needed to debate and build strong arguments for and against issues. My combined student activism and schoolwork gave me an extraordinary education.”
Lopes has put that education to work from the moment she graduated, first with Service Employees International Union, Local 509, managing electoral activities and developing trainings, followed by a stint as a legislative aide to Massachusetts State Representative Alice K. Wolf. Then, when Warren Tolman asked her to become campaign coordinator for his gubernatorial campaign, she jumped at the opportunity. Says Lopes, “I developed and implemented organizational structure, was responsible for overall campaign operations, was the chief technical support person for computer networking and website development, and participated in strategic planning which included message development, volunteer recruitment, policy paper development and media.”
From this experience, Lopes moved forward as field director for the Early Education for All Campaign, a public policy initiative dedicated to meeting the early education needs of Massachusetts children. The effort contributed directly to the unanimous passing by the Massachusetts legislature, and signing by the Governor, a 2004 law that created the first-in-the-nation Board and consolidated Department of Early Education and Care. “I was involved in developing and implementing the statewide field plan,” says Lopes, “plus, I worked to mobilize various constituencies in education, business, labor, health care and religious communities to support this proposal and was involved in strategic planning.” This job segued into her deputy chief of staff position in 2005.
“I’ve developed some amazing friendships along the way,” says Lopes, but points to her family and childhood friends from Avon, Massachusetts, as still being her strongest support network. “When you work over eighty hours a week for a candidate or on an issue you’re passionate about, it becomes challenging to spend time with everyone, but I learned to focus on the quality, not quantity, of time we spend together. And UMass Amherst will always be my second home. I thrived there, and I wouldn’t be who I am without that experience. It’s important to remember where you came from because it will guide you to where you need to go.”
October 5, 2006
