Stephanie Castellanos

Stephanie Castellanos is a social entrepreneur, diversity & inclusion consultant, and a motivational speaker. Her passion for youth empowerment stems from her experiences as being the first in her family to attend college, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and her upbringing in Inglewood, CA. Stephanie seeks to plant seeds of inspiration in youth of similar backgrounds, while providing them with access to resources, tools, and the skills needed to achieve their dreams!

Stephanie is the founding Director of Talent & Recruitment at Voices College-Bound Language Academies, a K-8 charter school network committed to closing the achievement gap via a dual-immersion program and social-justice-centered curriculum. At Voices, she is leading the development and launch of the first bilingual teaching fellows program in the United States.

She is also the founder of the Coalition for Diverse Educators (C4DE). C4DE is a network of leaders from school districts and community-based organizations dedicated to increasing, empowering, and developing a strong pipeline of future educators of color in urban education.

Prior to her current role, Stephanie led the national diversity recruitment strategy as the Western U.S./Puerto Rico Recruitment & Selection Specialist at Urban Teachers, an intensive four-year teacher preparation program in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Graduate School of Education.

Stephanie has recruited, managed and inspired over 400 college students to teach a comprehensive health education to 9th graders without health education at Peer Health Exxhange. Simultaneously, as the Director of The Saturday Business Academy, Stephanie led the redevelopment of a financial literacy, college preparation, and motivational youth program for high school students in Title I schools across Los Angeles.

Stephanie has also fueled her love for civic engagement and politics by leading a robust grassroots movement for the 2012 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign in South Florida.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Minor in Urban Planning & Regional Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Stephanie Castellanos was recognized for her commitment to youth empowerment and community-building at the 2014 Women of Excellence Awards, as the Emerging Latina – Rising Star of the Year by the National Latina Business Women Association.