Ida Castro
Vice President Sponsorship, Development Govt. Relations
V-Me Media, Inc.
Ida Castro joins V-me with more than 25 years of experience in law, academia, not-for- profit and government agencies. Her diverse career has been characterized by her strong passion for helping others and for building strategic alliances across diverse groups of people.
Prior to joining V-me, Ida founded and led her own company, IC Alliance Development Group, LLC. Here she helped companies like Verizon, Greater New York Hospital Corporation and Pratt Institute with government relations and strategic alliances.
Ida was also appointed as the 2005 Haywood Burns Chair for Civil Rights, CUNY School of Law and served as Commissioner/CEO of the New Jersey Department of Personnel.
In 1998 President Clinton appointed Ida as Chairwoman/CEO of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after serving as Director of the Women’s Bureau, Acting Deputy Solicitor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Worker Compensation at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Prior to her tenure in government, Ida held numerous senior positions in academia and the private sector including, Senior Legal Counsel, New York City Health and Hospital Corporation; Labor Management Relations Director and Counsel to the President, Hostos Community College. Ida was an associate at Eisner Levy & Ratner, PC and a tenured Associate Professor, Rutgers University Institute of Management and Labor Relations.
Throughout her career, Ida has been a leader of numerous not-for-profit boards dedicated to the empowerment of the Hispanic community including: Puerto Rican Action Board, Puerto Rican Congress, the advisory board for the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers and the NYU Law School Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Board. She presently serves on the New Jersey Executive Board for AARP, Mi Familia Vota, the Women’s Venture Fund and the board of the John Heldrich Workforce Development Center.
Ida has been the recipient of numerous achievement awards including the Hispanic Bar Association, MALDEF, Garden State Equality, National Puerto Rican Coalition and is the only Hispanic woman inducted to the Rutgers University Alumni Hall of Fame. Ida was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from St. Joseph’s College.
She is a graduate from the University of Puerto Rico and received her masters degree from Rutgers University and her juris doctorate from Rutgers School of Law.
