Amy Castro

Founding Director

Associate Professor of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania

Amy Castro is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and the co-Founder and Director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as the co-PI of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) under Mayor Michael Tubbs. She was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Penn’s School of Nursing (AY 19-20), an affiliated faculty member of the Alice Paul Center, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. She was the 2017 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at the School of Social Policy and Practice where she teaches courses on policy analysis, gender, and impacting government.

Dr. Castro’s research explores economic mobility, guaranteed income, and innovation. She was awarded the GADE Research Award, the Society for Social Work and Research Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the Nina Fortin Award for her work on women and risky lending during the foreclosure crisis.

Prior to her time at Penn, she spent more than a decade working with non-profits and community-based agencies in Philadelphia and New York City. She has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Economic Security Project, and the Asset Funders Network. Her research has been published by Social Service Review, the Gerontologist, Social Science & Medicine, Social Work, The American Journal of Public Health, and featured throughout the popular press. She earned a PhD in Social Welfare and a Master of Philosophy from the City University of New York, a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Social Work from Cairn University.