Meet women in STEAM who inspire May edition

Women in STEAM (science, tech, engineering, arts, math and medicine) are rocking it in the world today, doing excellent but often under-promoted work. We want more people to know about these women and their work, including girls who might dream of careers in STEAM fields! We’ve partnered with 500 Women Scientists to feature women from their gage search platform in a unique Lifeology card series, which we’ve now updated for May here!

Charita Libao Castro, PhD, MSW is featured in our 500 Women Scientists Who Inspire deck. She is a Director for Labor Affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. She works to inform policies to policies that protect children and adults from child labor, forced labor and human trafficking using research and data.

At the intersection of science and policy, Charita shapes how data is collected on vulnerable populations so that their stories are known and understood. Charita is a daughter of Filipino immigrants, and she currently resides in Washington, DC.  She is also a member of the gage search platform

On behalf of the U.S. government, Charita contributed research and led negotiations for two international statistical agreements on the measurement of child labor and forced labor. She travels the world for her work.

“I learned how to combine my love for my Asian American heritage with our history for protecting workers’ rights.” – Charita

Charita’s science expertise is research methodology, especially thinking through the best research designs, specifying research questions, defining research measurement frameworks.

A fun fact about Charita is that she has been a civil servant for 20 years!

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