David Castro is a graduate of Haverford College (1983) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1986). In 1993, following a successful career both in private practice and as a Philadelphia prosecutor, he was awarded a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Program Fellowship. He studied community leadership and its relation to improving quality of life. Based upon this work, in 1995 Mr. Castro founded I-LEAD, Inc., a school for community leadership development that has served several thousand emerging leaders across Pennsylvania through its affiliation with Pennsylvania Weed and Seed, and its development of an accredited Associate Degree program in Leadership.
In 2002, in recognition of his work on behalf of Pennsylvania communities, David was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship, which he used to study leadership and its impact on economic and community development in Turkey. In 2009, in recognition of his work in community leadership and education, Mr. Castro was named an Ashoka Fellow by the Ashoka Global Funds for Social Change. Ashoka is an international community of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. A teacher at heart, David is frequently consulted as a speaker, serving on panel discussions and contributing regularly via blogs and articles posted through the Ashoka network, the Kellogg Leadership Alliance and the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal.
David is the author of Genership 1.0: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul, now available in print and e-book formats.
PAST PRESENTATIONS ON GENERSHIP AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
Philadelphia Urban League: September 2012
National Christian Conference Center: December 2012
American University School of International Relations: March 2013
Texas Department of Transportation: July 2013
Grant Professionals Association Conference at Baltimore Inner Harbor: November 15, 2013
College of New Jersey: November 19, 2013
Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Conference in Detroit, Genership and Systems Thinking: November 22, 2013
Ashoka U Conference at Brown University at Brown University, Genership and Social Innovation Competencies: February 22, 2014