Alumni Changemakers: Chancellor Joseph I. Castro

PPIA Alumni Profiles: Celebrating 40 Changemakers

To honor our 40 years, we want to celebrate our most valuable resources - our alumni! Over the following months, we will share profiles of alumni from the fellowships throughout our four decades of diversity and leadership in public service.

Chancellor Joseph I. Castro has been selected as the first Changemaker. He completed the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1987 at the University of Washington. We are proud to celebrate your success by sharing your story with our community!

Chancellor Joseph I. Castro

Creating a thriving and diverse student population

California State University Chancellor Castro embodies the values of accessibility, commitment, and focus. In this role, he humbly accepts responsibility for 23 campuses, with 56,000 faculty and staff, and 486,000 students, one-third of whom are the first in their family to attend college (Approximately 60% are students of color).

Being chosen as California State University’s first Californian chancellor, he credits the sacrifices made by his family and the support of faculty and friends. He aims to remove all barriers for students from all backgrounds and inspire them with his own story.

“What I want to take to this chancellorship is a real continued focus on the success of our students.”

Dr. Castro is also focused on doubling Pell Grants, which brings financial aid to low-income students, permanently indexing the grant to inflation to ensure its value doesn’t diminish over time.

Each of his goals clearly reflects the value he places on facilitating success for all students and the way in which he plans to close the equity gaps that currently exist.

“Dr. Castro is a passionate and effective advocate for his students, his campus and the CSU – in his local community, in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C.,”

- Lillian Kimbell, Chair of the CSU Board of Trustees

He even chose to write his doctorate on University Presidents and the power that optimism had on their leadership.

We celebrate you, Dr. Joseph Castro, for your generosity and support to those who need it

most. Your efforts have encouraged optimism and success within entire communities and soon to be entire public school systems. You embody compassionate leadership and inspire greatness in all!