Christian Castro

Credentials: Ph.D.

Position title: Former MTLE Program Manager

As of January 2022, Dr. Christian Castro is the Inaugural Associate Dean for Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity at the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Chris joined Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence in the fall of 2015; he assumed the role of program director in January 2019. In his time with MTLE, Chris worked as a core facilitator and mentor for fourteen cohorts, including over 150 faculty fellows. Chris is a recognized national thought leader, scholar, and facilitator in equity, diversity, and inclusion in teaching (NSF/ASPIRE).

Chris has taught in a variety of academic fields (English as a second language, medical education, music, theology) and has been an expert facilitator and educational consultant in higher education for the past 15 years. His research interests span faculty professional identity development, sense of belonging and self-efficacy regulation, and the effects of instructional interventions on student learning. Most recently, he has been part of a research team – under the direction of MTLE Fellow and Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Karen Schloss – investigating the effects of virtual reality as an instructional tool in the teaching of functional neuroanatomy (UW Virtual Brain Project).

Prior to joining MTLE, Chris was the Assistant Director for Faculty Development at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami. Under the leadership and mentoring of Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning Dr. Carla Lupi, he designed and implemented the college’s first peer and student review of teaching program; served as an instructional/classroom coach, working directly with medical faculty members to develop their skills in facilitating active engagement methods in the classroom, spanning Team-Based Learning, Problem-Based Learning, and Cased-Based Learning; and was instrumental in the college’s first curriculum evaluation and redesign initiative to include evidence-based teaching and assessment methodologies.

A note of deep gratitude: I stand on the shoulders of a giant in the field of teaching and learning: Dr. Carla Lupi. I am forever grateful for her brilliant, sophisticated, and deeply insightful mentorship over several years. Her model has fundamentally shaped my professional career and ways of being in the discipline of educational development.

Most important teaching tip: Always remember your students are human beings, not just thinking beings: they feel, they hope, they fear, they dream, just like you do – so do what you can to create an environment where everyone’s humanity is honored and respected.