Ida L. Castro joined The Commonwealth Medical College, Scranton, Pennsylvania, in September 2008, with more than 25 years of experience in law, academia, not-for-profit and government agencies. Her career has been characterized by her strong passion for helping others and for building strategic alliances across diverse groups of people.
In 1994, Castro was appointed as the 2005 Haywood Burns Chair for Civil Rights, CUNY School of Law, and from 2002 2004 she served as the first Latina Commissioner/CEO of the New Jersey State Department of Personnel.
Castro was appointed by President Clinton in 1998 as the first Latina Chairwoman/CEO of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, after serving as Director of the Women's Bureau, Acting Deputy Solicitor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Worker Compensation at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Throughout her career, Castro has led numerous not-for-profit boards and currently serves on the NYU Law School Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Board, and on the boards of directors of Mi Familia Vota, and the Employment Opportunity & Training Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Castro has been the recipient of numerous achievement awards, including the Hispanic Bar Association, MALDEF, Garden State Equality, and the National Puerto Rican Coalition, and she is the only Latina inducted into Rutgers University's Alumni Hall of Fame.
Castro is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico. She received her Master's degree from Rutgers University and her Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Human Letters by St. Joseph's College.
