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JOIN OUR MOVEMENT TODAY!
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JOHANNA LÓPEZ:
A WORKING MOTHER, COMMITTED TEACHER, AND FEARLESS SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER!
Johanna López, originally from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, is a Member of the Orange County School Board, where she has represented District 2 since 2018 and has championed the well-being of students in the wake of the pandemic, worked to empower the most vulnerable students, fought to increase benefits and pay for teachers and other school staff such as bus drivers and janitors, and successfully led the renaming of Stonewall Jackson Middle School to Roberto Clemente Middle School. Johanna also works as a business strategist for Urbander, a minority-woman-owned small business. She is the former Executive Director at Alianza Center, an Orlando-based non-profit organization that focuses on empowering the Latino community, where she has led COVID-19 vaccination and information campaigns, youth summer camps, and community-based civic engagement programs.
Before then, Johanna was an Advanced Placement Spanish teacher at Colonial High School, where, for twenty years, she made a tremendous impact in the lives of thousands of students inside and outside of the classroom. She was known for her students’ consistent perfect passing rates in the national AP Spanish Language and AP Spanish Literature exams. She also served as Colonial’s Girls Varsity Volleyball Coach and Hispanic Honor Society Sponsor. Her professionalism and commitment to the students’ well-being allowed her to become the Orange County Teacher of the Year in 2017. She is, among others, also a recipient of the Governor's Shine Award for Inspirational Teachers, the Queen Smith Award for Commitment to Urban Public Education, and the Life Changer of the Year award.
Johanna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico. She moved to Orlando in 1998, where she first worked at a car wash and then at a fast-food restaurant. She is the mother of four young adults and has lived in our district for almost twenty-five years. During her free time, you can find her dancing salsa, teaching her three-year-old granddaughter Eliza how to read, or playing with her family dogs Moca and Mavi.
 Johanna was an Advanced Placement Spanish teacher at Colonial High School for 20 years. In 2017, due to her commitment to student growth inside and outside of the classroom, she became the OCPS Teacher of the Year, the first Latina to win that award. |  Johanna is a Member of the Orange County School Board, where she successfully advocated for the renaming of Stonewall Jackson Middle to Roberto Clemente Middle School, seeking to better represent the diversity within our community. |  Johanna served as the Executive Director at Alianza Center, an Orlando-based non-profit organization where she has led community campaigns on COVID-19 vaccinations and information. |
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 Johanna's 2018 campaign for the Orange County School Board was not only historic because it led to her election as the first Latina on the Board but also because it was fully youth-run, managed by OCPS current and former students. Together, they knocked over 35 thousand doors and made more than 50 thousand phone calls. |  Johanna is an advocate for protecting access to women's reproductive healthcare. |  Johanna is a working mother of four young adults: Josue, Gio, Alondra, and Gianna. She is also the grandmother to baby Eliza. |
JOHANNA'S BOLD VISION TO PUT FLORIDA CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FIRST!
Johanna has a record of putting our children and families first, and that's exactly what she will focus on as our next State Representative. Her platform seeks to ensure our schools deliver a high-quality education to every student, our working families have access to affordable housing, healthcare access is expanded, and our human and civil rights are respected and protected. That's how we'll create a Florida where everyone is welcomed, supported, and empowered!
IMPROVE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM
Johanna will champion our youth by fighting to fund STEAM education programs, increase wages for veteran teachers and other school personnel including janitors and bus drivers, and establish additional support systems for ELL and ESE students.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Johanna knows how difficult it is for working families in Central Florida to afford housing, especially rent. She will work to increase wages through the creation of good-paying jobs, effectively fund and appropriate the Sadowski Fund, and increase opportunities for homeownership.
EXPAND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
Johanna will advocate to expand Medicaid coverage, make access to mental healthcare easily available for all and especially children, fund preventative care services (i.e. vaccinations), protect women's access to reproductive healthcare, and expand pre-natal and post-natal care options for women.
PROTECT OUR CIVIL RIGHTS
Johanna will work to ensure our human and civil rights are protected across the state, including fighting to expand voting rights, standing up for our Black, immigrant, and Puerto Rican communities, and opposing anti-LGTBQ legislation that puts our communities in danger.
