Faculty Profile of the Month

Faculty member takes an alternate approach to the tenure-track line

By Ashley Wiggin

Butch de Castro hasn’t taken a typical path in academia.

In fact, he never envisioned a career as a faculty member. When he joined the Psychosocial and Community Health faculty in the fall of 2006 as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Occupational Health Nursing program, however, he knew he had landed on the perfect opportunity.

“There are not very many institutions that are looking for exactly what you have to offer,” he said. “When the right opportunity comes up, you jump at it.”

Butch found out about the faculty opening while on a CDC-funded post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005.  There, he focused his research on occupational health issues impacting immigrant worker populations, in particular day laborers and foreign-recruited nurses.  The fellowship afforded him the opportunity to pursue this passionate interest, which he has continued to build on here at the UW School of Nursing.

“Being part of an immigrant family, the immigrant story deeply resonates with me,” he said.  “Immigrant populations often face marginalization across many aspects of life, which, of course, can have a profound impact on health.”

Continues Butch: “I am motivated to ask research questions about immigrant populations that not many people are willing to ask. My favorite part of being a researcher is being able to ask those questions that reveal the social justice problems that these workers encounter. That’s what keeps me inspired.”

Butch’s first encouragement to become a nurse was his mother, who as a public health nurse exposed him to community health issues at a young age.  A native of Los Angeles, Butch graduated from UCLA with a BSN in 1993 and worked for a few years as an operating room nurse, and later, a public health nurse, before returning to graduate school for his MSN and MPH degrees at The Johns Hopkins University where he also completed his PhD in 2002.  An interest in occupational health policy led him to Washington, DC where he worked at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and subsequently to a position at the American Nurses Association.

Butch’s career hasn’t been all work and no play, however.  In-between his academic and professional positions, he took a break to train as a professional baseball umpire, and a few years later, became a certified bartender and worked at The Hard Rock Café in Washington, DC.

In April, Butch was awarded the Washington State Nurses Association’s 2009 Research Award for his research and practice advocacy on occupational health and safety issues impacting nursing workforces.

“It was a big honor to receive,” he said noting that his parents came up for the event.

Butch and his wife, Rachel, a nurse at Seattle Children’s Hospital, have a son, Santiago, who is now 11 months old, and, they live in the Wedgwood neighborhood.