Dr. Dina Castro

Biography

Dina C. Castro is the Director of the Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being and the inaugural Bahamdan Professor for Early Childhood Well-Being at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her scholarship focuses on equity and the quality of early care education, particularly for bilingual children and immigrant, migrant, and indigenous communities. She has conceptualized the intersection of language, culture, race, ethnicity, and disability, and advocates for interdisciplinary approaches in the fields of early childhood development, education, bilingualism, bilingual education, and special education. Before joining Boston University, she held the Velma E. Schmidt Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education at the University of North Texas from 2014 to 2021. Her prior positions include roles at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Castro has also served as the director of the Center for Early Care Education Research: Dual Language Learners, a federally funded national research center focused on improving practices and measurements in early care education for bilingual children. Her research is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, National Institute of Child Health and Development, and the Administration for Children and Families Office of Special Education Programs.

Research Interests