Carl Castro joined the USC School of Social Work faculty in 2013 after serving 33 years in the Army, where he obtained the rank of colonel. He is also the research director for the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families. Castro began his military career as an infantryman in 1981. Throughout his military career, Castro has served in a variety of research and leadership positions, including commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Europe in Heidelberg, Germany; chief of the Department of Military Psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C.; and director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Md. Castro has completed two tours in Iraq and peacekeeping missions to Bosnia and Kosovo.

He is currently chair of a NATO research group on military mental health training and serves as an advisor for several Department of Defense research panels focused on psychological health. Castro has authored more than 150 scientific articles and reports in numerous research areas. His current research efforts focus on assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family and unit readiness, and evaluating the process of service members’ transitions from military to civilian life.