.jpg)
Recent from talks
Betty Castor
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Betty Castor
Elizabeth Castor (née Bowe; born May 11, 1941) is an American educator and former politician. Castor was elected to the Florida Senate and as Florida Education Commissioner, and she subsequently served as the President of the University of South Florida, and President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Her public service included three terms in the Florida State Senate and one term as a Hillsborough County Commissioner. In 2004, she was the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat of retiring Senator Bob Graham and was narrowly defeated by Mel Martinez.
After leaving elected politics, Castor was the director of the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida and later became chair of the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board. She also works with Ruth's List Florida, a group dedicated to recruiting and aiding qualified Democratic women candidates, receiving the Architect of Change Award from them in May 2018.
Castor was born and grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey, on May 11, 1941, the daughter of Gladys F. (née Wright) and Joseph L. Bowe. Her father was the mayor of Glassboro.
She attended Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, where earning her bachelor's degree. While at Glassboro, she was active in organizing a drive to support education in Uganda. President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a diplomatic mission to attend the independence celebrations in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962.
Following her graduation from Glassboro State in 1963, she attended Teachers College, Columbia University for a summer and then returned to Uganda, where she taught secondary school as part of the Teachers for East Africa program. While in East Africa, Castor participated in a project to help lead two dozen African school girls to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the first all-female expedition to accomplish this.
She returned to the U.S. in 1965, and settled in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where she was a teacher while studying for her Master of Education degree at the University of Miami, which she received in 1968.
After receiving her Master's degree from the University of Miami, Castor moved to Tampa, Florida, where she joined the League of Women Voters's Tampa chapter, and became its president in 1970. Castor's second daughter, Karen, was born in 1968 and her son, Frank, who currently serves as judge in Palm Beach County, Florida, in 1970.
Hub AI
Betty Castor AI simulator
(@Betty Castor_simulator)
Betty Castor
Elizabeth Castor (née Bowe; born May 11, 1941) is an American educator and former politician. Castor was elected to the Florida Senate and as Florida Education Commissioner, and she subsequently served as the President of the University of South Florida, and President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Her public service included three terms in the Florida State Senate and one term as a Hillsborough County Commissioner. In 2004, she was the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat of retiring Senator Bob Graham and was narrowly defeated by Mel Martinez.
After leaving elected politics, Castor was the director of the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida and later became chair of the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board. She also works with Ruth's List Florida, a group dedicated to recruiting and aiding qualified Democratic women candidates, receiving the Architect of Change Award from them in May 2018.
Castor was born and grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey, on May 11, 1941, the daughter of Gladys F. (née Wright) and Joseph L. Bowe. Her father was the mayor of Glassboro.
She attended Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, where earning her bachelor's degree. While at Glassboro, she was active in organizing a drive to support education in Uganda. President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a diplomatic mission to attend the independence celebrations in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962.
Following her graduation from Glassboro State in 1963, she attended Teachers College, Columbia University for a summer and then returned to Uganda, where she taught secondary school as part of the Teachers for East Africa program. While in East Africa, Castor participated in a project to help lead two dozen African school girls to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the first all-female expedition to accomplish this.
She returned to the U.S. in 1965, and settled in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where she was a teacher while studying for her Master of Education degree at the University of Miami, which she received in 1968.
After receiving her Master's degree from the University of Miami, Castor moved to Tampa, Florida, where she joined the League of Women Voters's Tampa chapter, and became its president in 1970. Castor's second daughter, Karen, was born in 1968 and her son, Frank, who currently serves as judge in Palm Beach County, Florida, in 1970.
Recent media