PEN America Interim Co-CEO Summer Lopez

William Cooper Podcast Channel · Aug 2, 2026 · 27m

Summer Lopez joined PEN America in 2017, and serves as the chief program officer of Free Expression Programs. Beginning in Nov 2024, she is also serving as interim co-CEO of PEN America. She previously worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for eight years, and was most recently posted to Zimbabwe, where she served as the deputy director of the Office of Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance at the USAID Mission in Harare. Earlier, she was at USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C., focused on the Middle East and Asia in the Center of Excellence on…