After 16 years in the federal government, Department of Education Chief Information Officer Luis Lopez is retiring this month to join the private sector, a department spokesperson confirmed to Merritalk.
“Our CIO is leaving the department to pursue new opportunities outside of government,” the official said on March 7. “His last day at the department will be March 22. I can confirm that.”
Mr. Lopez joined the federal government in 2008 as a help desk manager at the Department of Defense's National Naval Medical Center. He served his nearly eight years at the Department of Defense and rose to become chief operations officer for his TS/SCI at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Prior to joining the Department of Education, Lopez served briefly in federal IT from 2015 to 2017 as Director of Applications, Engineering, and Integration at the Defense Health Agency.
He then joined the Department of Education as Director of Operations in 2017, and in December 2022, Mr. López was appointed CIO. Between the two positions, he served as Enterprise's director of technology services for over three years.
It is unclear who will become acting CIO if Lopez steps down.announced by the Ministry of Education Work notice The new CIO position will open on March 1st, with applications due by March 14th.
On Thursday, MeriTalk recognized Lopez for his IT and cyber work at the Department of Education. CIO receives his FITARA award. tech tonic – formerly Cyber Smoke – March 14th at 5pm at Morton’s in DC