Events

Stephanie Castellanos

Founder & Director, Uproot Talent

Stephanie Castellanos is a justice & equity strategist, national facilitator, and the founder of Uproot Talent – an award-winning boutique talent advising and executive search firm that specializes in hiring and *keeping leadership of the global majority. Her commitment to cocreating equity in the workplace stems from her experiences as the daughter of immigrants and a single mom, navigating higher education as the first in her family to graduate from high school, two decades of grassroots organizing and growing up as a kid from Inglewood, CA. Her experiences include leading the talent, DEI&B, and
recruitment strategy for multiple start-up organizations– including founding a multi-sector grassroots coalition dedicated to recruiting and retaining teachers of color and matching over 600 leaders (90% identify as people of the global majority) to nonprofits, foundations, public school districts, and child welfare agencies across the country. As the creator of WOKESHOP™, she’s also facilitated over 1,000 un/relearning experiences alongside over 20,000 participants since 2015. Stephanie’s expertise goes beyond the “professional” realm. She’s organized thousands of community members to become the first U.S city to defeat Walmart’s expansion while in high school, spent countless hours preparing her neighbors & family for interviews growing up, and co-founded a standing mentorship program (CAMBIO Academy) for girls of color while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It’s this lived experience that Stephanie centers and uplifts in all she does.