She received her Ph.D. from University of Oregon and is a national certified school psychologist, in addition to her M.S. in Special Education from the University of Oregon. Prior to her tenure at Texas A & M International University, Dr. Castro-Olivo worked as Assistant Professor from 2008 to 2014 at the Graduate School of Education, School of Psychology Program, University of California, Riverside. Her research in the area of Social-Emotional Learning is widely used across the nation in meeting the social and emotional needs of English Language Learners.