Dr. Castillo is the Associate Vice Chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. He is a faculty member in the Center for Social Medicine and an affiliated faculty member in the UCLA Center for Community Engagement and the California Policy Lab at UCLA. He is also a member of the California State Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health. Dr. Castillo’s research focuses on health equity, serious mental illness, and community-public-academic partnerships, with the aim to improve the capacity of public systems to address inequities. He currently leads a NIMH-funded project on the jail-to-homelessness pipeline experienced by individuals with serious mental illness.

Dr. Castillo holds national leadership roles in research and medical education. His research has been conducted in close partnership with local, state, and national agencies and community organizations including the US Office of the Surgeon General, the NY State Office of Mental Health, Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health and Health Services, the RAND Corporation, and Healthy African American Families II. He has also developed over 20 educational partnerships with local health agencies and community-based organizations, including Project 180, the Hammer Museum, and Dignity and Power Now (Frontline Wellness Network). He has developed graduate medical education curricula in psychiatry on the topics of public service, structural competency, physician advocacy, and health equity, which have been nationally recognized.

Dr. Castillo is second-generation Filipino American, born and raised in rural Virginia. He obtained his BA in English from the University of Virginia and his MD with a Concentration in Underserved Populations from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his psychiatry residency and public psychiatry clinical fellowship at Columbia University, specializing in field-based services for homeless populations. Dr. Castillo completed a 2-year fellowship in health services/health policy research, the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, and obtained his MS in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.