Daniel Jacobson López, MSW ’15

Dr. Daniel Jacobson López is a tenure-track assistant professor and incoming Title IX coordinator at Boston University School of Social Work and visiting faculty at Yale School of Public Health. His research examines how sociopolitical systems engage with gay Latino and/or Black sexual assault survivors and the health services provided to them. He has also researched the effects of COVID-19 on people living with HIV/AIDS and most recently, ways to reduce stigma and increase HIV testing for Ghanaian MSM in Ghana.

Dr. Jacobson López was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Pitt Public Health, where he was selected as a CEED diversity scholar at Pitt Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He was the first-ever Latine and Latin American PhD graduate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and is the founder of the University of Pittsburgh’s first Latinx graduate student group. In 2020, he was appointed as the inaugural chair of diversity and inclusion for the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association. He was appointed by the president of San Diego State University to combat gender-based violence on university campuses. He has published in various peer-reviewed journals, including with University of Pennsylvania Provost John Jackson, Jr. and Dr. Antonio García of the University of Kentucky, and has received grants from Boston University and Yale University.

Dr. Jacobson López has a doctoral certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and a certification from Katz Graduate School of Business at Pitt. He is a former intern with the United Nations Development Programme, a Schweitzer Fellow Alumnus, and a SAMSHA CSWE Doctoral Minority Fellow alumnus. Dr. Jacobson López is a certified sexual assault counselor, a licensed certified social worker, and an anti-bias facilitator. He has received awards from Black Men at Penn and the Center for Hispanic Excellence at Penn. He received his B.A. from Skidmore College.

“I chose Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) because of its educational reputation, faculty, and clinical focus combined with an emphasis on racial and social justice, as I had wanted to receive the best clinical education to effectively engage with individuals who had experienced racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination. My time at SP2 and the larger Penn campus was unmatched in terms of community and providing a sense of purpose. I became actively involved in Latine and Black student organizations, often in leadership roles that allowed me to advocate for Black and Brown students, and made a lot of friends in the process.

“I gained a clinical skill set that I continue to use in my research and teaching of master’s-level clinical courses. . . .  My current research on sexual violence against Black and/or Latino gay men of color is clinically focused, and I am thankful to Penn for providing me with the clinical lens and mentorship that I use in my teaching and research now as a professor, researcher, and Deputy Title IX coordinator.”