UCLA Health’s Enrico Castillo Selected as a New Voice by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Dr. Enrico Castillo
3 min read

July 27 2021—Enrico G. Castillo, MD, MSHPM of UCLA Health has been selected by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) as one of 22 New Voices, a diverse cohort of mid-career experts who will bring their collective ideas about critical and emerging interdisciplinary issues to the work of the National Academies.

Dr. Castillo is an assistant professor at the Center for Social Medicine and Humanities in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His research focuses on health equity, serious mental illness, and community-public-academic partnerships.

The NASEM initiative, "New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine" (SEM), engages a diverse group of outstanding early-career SEM leaders to provide new perspectives on issues and public communication modes for the National Academies, and to help identify and explore activities designed to expand the diversity of expertise that is engaged in the convening and advisory functions of the National Academies. The program is made possible by support from the Moore Foundation.

"For me, this past year has foregrounded the importance of placing our science in closer dialogue with minoritized and under-resourced communities. It is a great honor to me to be a part of the New Voices program, to represent UCLA and to share my perspectives on health equity and justice in science," said Dr. Castillo.

During the course of the two-year program, Dr. Castillo will be given the opportunity to work with a diverse cohort of outstanding leaders to collectively advance their ideas about the future of science, engineering and medicine. By design, the cohort's objectives are self-defined at the start of each program cycle. UCLA's Dr. Olujimi Ajijola was selected as one of 18 members of the New Voices first cohort in 2019.

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. His work aims to improve the capacity of public systems to address disparities, particularly in homelessness and incarceration, by combining health services and social medicine research methods. He is currently leading a NIMH-funded project on the jail-to-homelessness pipeline experienced by individuals with serious mental illness.

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