Elizabeth Castillo

Congratulations to IHMA-US chapter board member Elizabeth Castillo for receiving a 2020 Ideas Worth Teaching award from the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society program. The judges commended her resource allocation course for teaching students to examine fundamental assumptions of capitalism while learning humanistic management practices. https://www.ideasworthteachingawards.com/2020-course-winners/resource-allocation-organizations

Details on her course:

How can we create a sustainable economy that works for everyone? Dr. Castillo develops solutions to this problem using social accounting, integrative thinking, and multiple capitals (e.g., social, cultural, spiritual). Her interdisciplinary research studies prosocial resource exchange using bioinspired principles such as mutualism, energetics, and relational biology. Her research is inspired by two decades of management experience at the San Diego Natural History Museum and Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. Castillo earned her B.A. in philosophy and history (summa cum laude), M.A. in Nonprofit Leadership, and PhD in Leadership Studies (2016), all from the University of San Diego. Her scholarship appears in publications like The Leadership Quarterly and Nonprofit Quarterly. She is an avid hiker and nature photographer. Her mission is to repair the world through scholarship that promotes thriving organizations, fulfilled people, connected communities, and a world we can be proud to pass on to our children.

Why this course

  • Employing an asynchronous, online format, this course takes a holistic approach to the notion of capital, questioning the assumption that financial capital is the primary engine of value creation

  • Professor Castillo’s students examine fundamental assumptions of capitalism while learning humanistic management practices and ways to evaluate intangible assets like trust, justice, and knowledge

  • The curriculum equips students to question what it means to lead a “pro-social” organization and encourages decision-making that leans on a fuller understanding of risk, return and tradeoffs