MinerAlert
MinerAlert
July 2026
By Sandra Ramirez ’08, ’21
As a young girl, Iris Lopez ’13 knew she wanted to be an entertainer. She pictured herself as a singer, the next Britney Spears.
“Get me in front of a crowd to try and sing, I cannot. I still get nervous,” Lopez said.
Although a singing career was ultimately not in the cards, Lopez considered other ways to use her voice to entertain people.
“TV was the next best thing,” she said. “I was still using my voice and still telling stories. For me, I was able to block out any outside noise when I was performing.”
In her position as a weather anchor and reporter for a local television news station in El Paso, Lopez found herself performing in front of the camera. She spent the next seven years working in local television news, where she discovered a rewarding new passion for nonprofit organizations.
“I don’t have a lot of money, but I have time and I have a platform, so I can give back to nonprofits by using my talents and my platform,” Lopez said.
She started volunteering with nonprofit organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the El Paso affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Soon after, Lopez’s two worlds would intersect. During weekend newscasts, she launched “Sunday Funday,” a segment focused entirely on positive local stories. As a reporter, she also started pitching and covering stories to bring awareness to mental health issues.
“I was able to highlight mental health in the TV world during a time when people weren’t talking about it,” Lopez said.
The cause was personal, as Lopez received her own mental health diagnoses. Instead of keeping it a secret, after much deliberation, she decided to publish her mental health journey in an article on the TV station’s website.
“I got nothing but positive feedback,” she recalled. “Even people who had been at the TV station for a long time, who were older than me, said, ‘Thank you for talking about it because all of us struggle, but we don’t know how to talk about it.’”
NAMI awarded Lopez with its Betty Fulenwider Media Award for accurately covering stories on mental health.
“For me, that’s the best award I’ve won because ultimately, I wanted to put mental health out there,” said Lopez.
Lopez’s love for nonprofit work inspired her to transition out of television news and to launch her own organization: Mija, Yes you can.
“A lot of the skills I use in the nonprofit world, I learned from the TV world and the radio world,” Lopez said. “The communication skills, the fundraising skills and public speaking.”
Lopez said the organization was born during a time when she felt women especially needed words of encouragement. It all started as a T-shirt with the words, “Mija, Yes you can.” In Spanish, the literal translation of “mija” comes from “mi hija,” or “my daughter”. However, it is more commonly used as a term of endearment referring to women as darling or dear.
Mija, Yes you can then became a Facebook page that featured articles written by Lopez about women doing great things. Lopez was encouraged to officially turn the movement into a nonprofit organization, so she did. In the six years since the organization was established, Lopez and her team of mijas have awarded more than $70,000 in scholarships. They also initiated the Mija Professional Closet, which often partners with local shelters to provide women with free professional clothing they can wear to work or to job interviews. The goal remains the same: try to motivate women of all ages and backgrounds.
Lopez did not completely walk away from a career as an entertainer. Before her career in television, Lopez worked as a radio DJ. Now, listeners can hear her on local radio weekday mornings co-hosting the local KISS-FM radio program, “Iris & Grizz in the Morning.”
When it comes to her career transitions, Lopez’s advice to students is to keep an open mind and be open to changes.
“We all have our plans, but sometimes plans change,” she advises. “You’re allowed to change your mind. That’s the beauty of school.”