Julián Castro served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama from 2014-2017. Before that, he was Mayor of his native San Antonio, Texas — the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city at the time. In 2012, he gave a rousing keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, during which he described the American Dream as a relay to be passed from generation to generation. After his historic campaign for president in 2020, Secretary Castro launched People First Future to help elect bold, progressive candidates whose campaigns are focused on improving the lives of all people they hope to represent. In September 2020, Secretary Castro launched “Our America with Julián Castro,” a podcast with Lemonada Media that puts a spotlight on vulnerable communities and takes a humanizing and hopeful look at how drastically the American experience shifts from one person to the next. In 2021, Secretary Castro became an MSNBC/NBC Political Analyst.
Secretary Castro currently serves on the board of directors of the Center for American Progress, the LBJ Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Bipartisan Policy Center and Common Sense Media. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute.
Secretary Castro earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.