Biography

Erin L. Castro is a teaching and research assistant in the department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership (EPOL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a teaching assistant for EPS 201, Foundations of Education, and EPS 511, Philosophy of the Middle School. Erin was nominated by her department in both 2010 and 2011 for the Outstanding Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants.

Her interests in public education reform are rooted in a desire for equity and justice, particularly for historically marginalized and chronically underserved students. Her research and scholarly work are guided by a desire to fulfill the promise of social mobility in a society that continues to be stratified along the lines of race and class. This commitment is most evident in her dissertation, "First I'd Put Some Windows In This School": A Critical Race Ethnography of the Illinois College and Career Readiness Pilot Program, which examines how students of color attending high school in rural southern Illinois experienced state legislation intent on increasing their readiness for postsecondary education.

Erin is currently an instructor for the Education Justice Project, a program offering education programs to students incarcerated at Danville Correctional Center in central Illinois. She is also a Graduate Research Assistant with Project STEP-UP, a study that investigates underrepresented undergraduate students’ participation in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at large public research universities.

Erin has worked for the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research profile can be found here: OCCRL.