Amparo Castillo

Amparo Castillo, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health. She serves as co-director of recruitment, retention, and community engagement programs at UIC’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Her career focuses on addressing health disparities through evidence-based interventions, community engagement, and training programs for underserved populations.

Dr. Castillo holds a medical degree from Javeriana University (Colombia), a Master of Science in Physiology from Maharishi University of Management, and a PhD in Community Health Sciences from UIC. Her early work included organizing a city-wide vaccination pilot program and responding to a hepatitis epidemic in Colombia’s indigenous communities. She later pioneered research on Transcendental Meditation’s effects on cardiovascular health and developed diabetes education programs like the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program (DEEP).

Her research emphasizes culturally tailored interventions for minority groups, including Latino older adults and African American communities. Key contributions include obesity and hypertension programs using alternative medicine and stress reduction techniques. She has held leadership roles in CDC-funded initiatives such as the REACH 2010 Diabetes Initiative and the Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities (CEED@Chicago), which targeted systemic health equity issues.

Dr. Castillo has co-authored impactful studies and trained countless community health workers. Her teaching includes PUBH 320: Ecologies of Health and Modern Life. Awards include an NHLBI-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship (1995).