Eleazar Lopez Jr. is what he calls a caring community cultivator.
Through the past 15 years, in both his professional and personal pursuits, he has had a heart to serve and a desire to impact Milwaukee, particularly underserved communities within the city.
“Milwaukee is near and dear to my heart,” said Lopez, who grew up in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood and serves as market director with Thrivent, a financial services firm. “I love meeting people and learning their stories and offering them a way to help them get better, protect their families and build a path to generational wealth.”
Lopez is the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s 2025 recipient of its Jackie Herd-Barber Award, which recognizes alumni of the Foundation’s Community Adviser and Ambassador Network who use their time, talent, treasure and ties to build and deepen relationships with, and investments in, the Foundation to help drive systemic change in their communities. Lopez was chosen for his service to the community, his continued efforts to create equity in his profession and his support of the Foundation.
His altruistic mindset has been shaped by his experience growing up as the son of immigrant parents and his Catholic school education. His parents migrated from Guanajuato, Mexico to Milwaukee in the 1980s. Though they only had a middle school education, they made sure he and his three siblings had different opportunities because they knew the impact it could have on their social and economic mobility.
“There were lot of donors to help support and fund the school who had extra resources and wanted to give back,” said Lopez, who attended Nativity Jesuit Academy and Pius XI High School. “I now feel like I have the same responsibility to give back to community and to help others up.”
Growing up in an immigrant community, Lopez said he saw many things that were unjust and so when he was younger, he initially aspired to become an attorney as a way to be a voice for the voiceless.
“The opportunity to represent somebody or speak up for somebody was appealing to me,” Lopez said.
But after a high school economics class, his professional trajectory changed. Helping guide people to build safe and secure futures – through the right mix of tools and resources – became more appealing.
He started in banking and later concentrated on investments. He spent eight years at Catholic Financial Life, including four as regional manager in charge of the company’s Hispanic agency where he recruited, trained and developed financial advisers.
“I got to educate and empower people and lead them to take action,” said Lopez, who conducted many educational workshops within churches, schools and nonprofit settings in the Latino community.
Now at Thrivent, he is focused on recruiting more diverse professionals within the financial services sector, helping individuals build wealth and “creating stepping stones so the next generation can have things a bit easier,” he said.
One of the ways he helps illustrate that lesson is through a putting green nestled against the floor-to-ceiling windows in his 17th floor office overlooking downtown Milwaukee. The three holes simulate the three main financial stages in life – beginning stages of a career, mid-life and the long lane to retirement.
“I get to take all the experiences I had in my career and pour into our community,” Lopez said. “What we’re trying to do is help people from our community help their communities.”
Given his drive to build equity and his passion for education, Lopez was drawn toward the Foundation and its mission.
“It was the fact that they were working to help the community and create a Milwaukee for all – that is equitable, that is inclusive, that anybody from any walk of life could be successful in Milwaukee,” said Lopez, who joined CAAN in 2021.
He has since referred other young professionals to CAAN and clients to explore the possibility of starting funds at the Foundation.
“I always ask: ‘What are the organizations or causes that are near and dear to you?’” he said. “I can then introduce the Foundation as a viable, credible and thoughtful partner in facilitating change in our community.”
Outside of work, he’s been facilitating change through his involvement on several nonprofits. He was Nativity Jesuit’s first alumni board member and served on the board at Pius. He is the current board chair at Sixteenth Street Community Health Center and was one of the cofounders of the Black and Brown Runaround, an annual 5K walk/run and festival that supports Milwaukee’s Black and Brown communities. In 2024, Lopez, his wife and three daughters were named the Hispanic Family of the Year by UMOS.
“My mission and the legacy I’d love to be able to leave behind is to build the bridge wider and longer – to welcome more people into our industry of financial services to help educate, empower and lead people to take action,” Lopez said. “I would love to build, to grow and to help more communities.”