Meet NLU's Graduate Commencement Speaker, Martin R. Castro

Speaker will address graduating NLU students during National Hispanic Heritage Month

Marty Castro utilizes his multifaceted experience in non-profit leadership,
business, law, education, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, community
service, and government, to create profound and positive impact in diverse
communities. Guided by his core values of social justice, equity, integrity, and
inclusiveness Marty leverages his broad and deep local, national and global
network of relationships and his professional and personal accomplishments to
leave this world a better place than he found it.

As the President and Chief Executive Officer of Casa Central, Marty provides
transformational leadership to one of the largest Latino social service agencies
in the Midwest. Casa Central’s programs in early childhood education, after
school, older adult wellness, violence prevention, behavioral health, and
homelessness build strong, healthy and stable families and communities. Marty
is responsible for all operational and financial aspects of the non-profit’s over
$18 million budget and the organization's more than 550 employees.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marty has taken a leadership role to
proactively educate and protect communities of color, who have been
disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Marty has participated in numerous local and national initiatives to address vaccine equity and vaccine hesitancy issues in Latino and African American communities, including serving on the Chicago Vaccine Confidence Taskforce.

Also, during the unrest surrounding the murder of George Floyd, Marty cofounded
an alliance of Latino and African American organizations and leaders
in the Chicago metropolitan area. This alliance, known as 2/3rds United is
meant to create new and strengthen existing relationships and initiatives among
Chicago’s two largest communities, as well as to promote racial healing efforts.

Marty's more than 30-year professional career has included high-profile
leadership roles in the law, business, non-profits and government. In 2011,
President Barack Obama appointed Marty to the United States Commission on
Civil Rights (“Commission”) and also appointed him Chairperson of the
Commission. He was the agency’s eighth Chairperson and the first Latino
Chairperson of the Commission in U.S. history. Marty served as Chair of the
Commission until December of 2016.

In December 2009, Marty was appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to
Chair the Illinois Human Rights Commission. He was confirmed to this post by the
Illinois State Senate. Marty served as Chair of the Human Rights Commission
until March of 2015.

In 2018, Marty was appointed by Illinois Governor-Elect JB Pritzker to co-chair
his Transition Committee on Equality, Equity and Opportunity (the “Committee”).
The Committee issued a report to the Governor to help guide his administration
on a host of equity issues impacting the people and government of Illinois.

Marty is the proud product of Head Start and Affirmative Action in higher
education. Marty was the first in his family to graduate from high school and
the first to obtain a higher education. He graduated from St. Francis De Sales
High School and received his B.A. in political science in 1985 from DePaul
University and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Michigan Law
School in 1988.

Marty has extensive experience in board governance. He is a former corporate
board member of Bankmont Financial, Inc., where he served on the Audit
Committee, and of Harris Bankcorp, Inc., where he also served on the
Community Reinvestment Act Committee. Marty has also served on the
governance and advisory boards of a number of privately-held start-up
companies and non-profit organizations.

Marty was recently selected as one of the “50 Most Influential Latinos In
Chicago” by Negocios Now magazine and was also previously selected by
Hispanic Business magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the
U.S. Marty is the recipient of three honorary doctorates, most recently from
Governors State University in May of 2018. Marty was also awarded an
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Roosevelt University in December
2011 for his work in advancing social justice. In June of 2016, Marty’s alma
mater, De Paul University, presented him with an Honorary Doctorate in Humane
Letters for his community activism and work in the area of civil and human rights.
In May of 2016, Marty was presented with the Ohtli Award, by the Mexican
government, its highest honor outside of Mexico, awarded to persons who have
had a profound, positive impact on the Mexican Diaspora.

Marty’s Chicago roots run deep. Born and raised on the Southeast Side of
Chicago, Marty is the son and grandson of Mexican immigrants. Marty’s
paternal grandparents came to South Chicago in the 1920s and worked in the
steel mills and helped build the community and parish that made up the first
Mexican settlement in Chicago. Marty’s late father, Ray Castro was a prominent
community, veteran and political activist and in 1980 Ray was elected the first
Latino in Illinois history to be a Democratic Ward Committeeman.

Marty practiced law and was a partner at several prestigious law firms, including
Baker & McKenzie, then the world’s largest global law firm. At Baker &
McKenzie, Marty practiced corporate transactional law and complex
commercial litigation. Marty was also the Hiring Partner for the Chicago office
and also led the firm’s national diversity efforts. Marty was also leader of the
diversity efforts at his other law firms, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP and Sonnenschein
Nath & Rosenthal. At both firms, Marty practiced in the areas of litigation, and
diversity consulting and training.

Marty was also the Vice President of External Affairs for Aetna, Inc., where he
had profit and loss responsibility for Aetna’s diverse markets strategy in the
Chicago Regional Market. Marty was also responsible for strategically
implementing Aetna’s Chicago Regional Market philanthropy, with a special
emphasis on helping to address healthcare inequalities in under-served and
diverse communities.

Most recently Marty was President and CEO of Castro Synergies, LLC, a
consulting firm he founded to support corporations, entrepreneurs and non-profit
organizations seeking to have a positive social impact on diverse communities.
Marty’s commitment to philanthropy has been longstanding. Having served two
non-consecutive terms on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community
Trust (the "Trust"), where he chaired the Trust’s Fellowship Selection Committee
and was an outspoken supporter of diversity and inclusion both at the Trust and
its grantee organizations. Marty is also one of the Founders of, and serves on
the Steering Committee for Nuestro Futuro, the Trust’s Latino philanthropy
initiative.

Marty also plays an active role at the international level. He has been selected
as a member of the Global Diplomacy Lab (“GDL”), an organization that brings
together international leaders to engage in informal diplomacy, conflict
resolution, and connecting critical global and local issues of the day. Marty is
also a member of the BMW Foundation’s Responsible Leaders Network, which
brings together diverse leaders from across the globe to work on issues of social
responsibility and sustainable development.

The constant thread running throughout Marty’s career has been his personal
commitment to community service. Marty has been an active leader in
community, civic and philanthropic organizations, and blue ribbon and
governmental committees. Marty currently is a trustee and past chair of the
board of the National Museum of Mexican Art, the only accredited Latino
Museum in the United States. Marty is also the Chair of the Chicago Latino
Theater Alliance, which annually hosts Destinos, International Theatre Festival in
Chicago.

For his leadership and accomplishments, Marty has received numerous awards
and recognitions, including the American Humanist Association’s Religious
Liberty Award for standing up to religious intolerance, the National Maestro
Award from Latino Leaders Magazine; the Hispanic National Bar Association’s
Lifetime Achievement Award, the Cultural Champion Award from the Chicago
Cultural Alliance, the Award of Excellence from the Thurgood Marshall College
Fund; the Chicago Bar Association’s Vanguard Award; and the National
Medical Fellowships’ Humanitarian Award. Marty also was the inaugural
recipient of the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Cesar Chavez Humanitarian
Award; the Edwin A. Rothschild Civil Liberties Award from the American Civil
Liberties Union of Illinois, that group’s highest honor, and the Inaugural Bob
Edgar Champion of Democracy Award from Common Cause Illinois for his
commitment to good government and political reform.

Above all, Marty's greatest personal and professional passions are to be a social
change agent, make a positive social impact and help shape his two teenage
sons into good citizens who will continue the family tradition of community
service.