Our Faculty and Staff

Marcelo Castro, Ph.D., is an Associate Dean/Professor at the School of Criminal Justice. Until 2014, Dr. Castro was a Director of Academic and Faculty Support overseeing the Applied Research Center research curriculum, among other responsibilities. He is also a licensed School Psychologist with expertise in assessment of emotional and behavioral disorders in children. He holds dual Master’s in Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Counseling along with a Ph.D. in Special Education. In addition to his responsibilities as a Director, Dr. Castro was been a program professor at the Nova Southeastern University—Abraham S. Fischler College of Education for the past 11 years. Prior to this, he was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Miami for a period of 5 years. He has taught assessment and measurement, research design and methods, statistics and program evaluation throughout his work as a professor over the past 14 years. In addition, he has been Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) in several program evaluation and evaluation research projects. Some of these activities involved: 

• Co-PI in HOPE Court, an evaluation of a restorative justice model to support youth in foster care transition to independent living.
• CO-PI in partnership with the Law Offices of the Public Defender 17th Judicial Circuit of Broward County to create and implement an evaluation plan for the Community Integration Unit's Recidivism Reduction Pilot Program (RRPP).
• Research partner (evaluation director) of project M-PACT, a comprehensive multi-layered approach to curb street gang activity in Miami Dade.
• Research Partner in task force that developed OJJDP’s Best Practices Manual as a result of the project mentioned above.
• Co-PI on the evaluation of the “One plan-One response Crisis Management Initiative Program” conducted by the School District of Palm Beach County Police Department.
• Primary Investigator for Project COATCH, a grant secured by Broward County from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide services to homeless men and women with co-occurring disorders.