Omar López is a teaching professor of practicum education, receiving a faculty appointment at USC in 2010. He has held a few inaugural administrative appointments since 2013, including the current one as assistant dean of recruitment and workforce development. He leads a team of faculty and staff that manage workforce development initiatives funded by federal, state, local and philanthropic dollars. These programs have secured over $52 million from 2014 to 2030 with approximately half allocated to over 1,200 graduate students in stipends and scholarships ranging from $4,000 to $52,000. These initiatives fund programs that offer curricula and training that prepare students to pursue careers in integrative behavioral health, public child welfare, addictions, public mental health, geriatrics and other fields. Furthermore, his team has managed the school’s merit-based and philanthropic scholarships since 2023. He is driven to secure funding to access higher education because he was a recipient of a workforce development stipend and merit-based scholarships that changed his life.

López was principal investigator of an international research project that sought to improve the child protection system in El Salvador and a co-investigator of two additional grant-funded projects exceeding $13 million. He has received numerous accolades for his community and professional contributions, including two distinguished faculty awards: one for achieving recognition in the scientific community while addressing solutions to important social problems and the other for excellence in teaching and outstanding service to the university, the school and the community.

He has professional and personal experience in the field of immigration, which he has applied to a number of initiatives including a global immersion program (Pathways to Immigration) designed to increase understanding of the causes and dynamics of immigration. Students of this course participated in a “migratory journey in reverse” from Los Angeles to San Diego, Baja California, Mexico City and Puebla City ending in Coatzingo, a migrant-sending community in central Mexico.

López is faculty advisor to the school's Latinx and International Social Work (formerly) student caucuses as he continues to support all students with an emphasis on those from underrepresented communities. He previously shared responsibilities for practicum education activities at the San Diego Academic Center, and was the lead in the development of macro placements. In addition to the Pathways to Immigration course, López has also taught courses in leadership, diversity, public child welfare, integrative practicum education, a national immersion to Washington D.C. focused on child development and social policy, and several grant-funded specialized seminars. He is in the process of completing a Doctorate of Education in higher education administration at USC.

He is a boxing coach/instructor, certified by USA Boxing, who is also the head coach of the USC Trojan Boxing Club as faculty service to the university. He role models by competing as an amateur boxer under the nickname of “El Profe” in the master's division. He has won several tournaments, including at the national level, with over 30 bouts. He has guided the USC competition team since 2022 to achieve several “firsts” for the university, including individual regional and national champions, "best national boxer" awards (including one considered the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy), and receiving the 2025 Most Outstanding Coach Award by the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association (USIBA).

For him, boxing provides a platform to practice self-care while he pursues the love of teaching and supporting others to achieve personal goals. This passion has yielded other opportunities, including being casted for the lead role of a global campaign commercial as himself, a university professor and boxing coach, through a Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artist (SAG-AFTRA) contract for a telecommunications and wireless company. This passion has also led to the development of a wellness program titled “Wellness and Mindful Body Awareness through Boxing” that has benefited employees and students from Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO - a non-profit organization), the Consulate of Mexico in Los Angeles, and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work through contractual and service work.