Angela Castillo joined ACP in 2025 as part of our ACP EI team in Brooklyn, New York. During our conversation below, Angela shared her excitement about exploring a new challenge within the Clinical Director role, detailed what makes her team so special, and shared some personal insights like her Swifty status—a label she proudly shares with her daughter. Continue reading to learn more about Angela, her passion, and advocacy!
Tell us about you.
I am a special education teacher at heart. I went into the field many years ago, but when I started, I taught older children in New York City in a special, self-contained school. They were about 14 till graduating, and then I made a complete change.
I went to Early Intervention on Long Island and at a school. Through that process I started doing home services, and then I decided to get my BCBA. I was a Psychology major in college until I went to grad school, and I think all of those pieces just kind of fell together where I think it really helped me to learn all the different aspects of this job.
I love the role because I can still help in the classroom. The classroom is literally across the way from my office. I’m there for the teacher as support. I’m there for collaboration. I’m able to train the Teacher Assistants (TAs). This is the reason I chose this job, and why I decided to do the long commute, because it kind of had a little bit of everything. I wasn’t totally away from the kids.
What informed what you wanted to do in your work life?
I grew up in New York, but in Long Island, so it’s still hustle and bustle, but not quite like Brooklyn. When I was four years old, my uncle was 9. He was my best friend. We played hide-and-seek. We did all these things together. He wound up passing away. He meant so much to me and was so beloved in the family. He was on the same level as me, and we just had fun playing together. That’s always been on my mind.
I went for an internship in a kindergarten classroom, and this teacher had like 30 kids. There was one kid that just could not keep up with her, could not keep up with the work, was stressed out, and I gravitated towards that child. I was trying to help him, and I knew [the teacher] was stressed because she had a lot of kids and she wasn’t able to give him what he needed.
I decided at that point that I knew I wanted to be a Special Education teacher. I just always find myself, wherever I’m being taken, it’s always been that Special Education.
What makes the commute to Brooklyn worth it?
There’s so much room for growth. I knew that this was a newer program here. I did some Instagram stalking, and I saw that it was opened up in February of 2024. It’s a very small program. There are only a certain amount of TAs at this point, but [the program] wants to be built up, and that is my goal, to build it up.
I felt like one of the reasons I wanted the position is I knew it was small and they needed support. I felt like I had the experience. I felt confident with it, with my training as a BCBA, but also knowing that I could do a supervisory role, as well being able to collaborate. I feel like ACP is very collaborative. Everybody I’ve met … it’s more of a collaboration, and we’re working together. I like that a lot.
Do you have a story within Early Intervention that you’d be willing to share?
I had a student. She was not yet even 2, and I was doing home services at that time. She wasn’t talking, and she hated people coming to the house. She would get herself so worked up, she would scream, cry, and pass out. This girl is now, I want to say 26 or 27. ABA worked for her.
ABA worked for her, but what also worked for her is the team. When she got into NYU, I texted her mom, and I was literally crying. She’s like, “It’s because of you.” I’m like, “No, it’s because of you!” She’s an OBGYN.
She would come home from working all day long, and she would sit on the floor with her daughter and work with her.
I say this to parents all the time, “It’s a team effort. When you work with the child just as hard as we do, then you’re going to see more progress.” That was such an inspiration to me.
I saw that mom exhausted with her scrubs on, sitting on the floor and working with her child. And to this day, I will never forget that.
How do you keep your team and yourself motivated on the hard days?
The girls here make me laugh and are just so sweet. I learn from them every day. They teach me things about myself. There’s a girl here that will talk to anybody. I want to be more like her, because when I get overwhelmed, I go more into myself. She sees that, and she’ll be like, “Angela!” They all have their own little things they’re good at. I think they see that I am willing to talk about myself and my life, and I think that that helps you develop a bond.
What song is on repeat for you right now?
There’s too many. So what happened was … I wound up taking my daughter to two Taylor Swift shows. One was in Dublin, and one was in Toronto. I became a Swifty because … You see, these people know every single lyric to every single song.
If I really want to cry, she has a lot of songs that you just need to cry to, like My Tears Ricochet is my absolute favorite song, but it makes me think of my grandma, and it makes me want to cry because I miss her. She has a way of putting out these lyrics that you’re like, “She knows me. She knows how I feel.” If I want to be happy … The lyric that I love is, “I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.” It’s one of my favorite lyrics. It’s my daughter’s favorite Taylor Swift song, and I didn’t love it until I realized it was her favorite. And then I listened to it on repeat, and I’m like, “This is such a good song!” So, when I need to be happy, I will put that song on.
Angela has been transformational for Team Brooklyn. Each day Angela shows her team how to be vulnerable, how to continue learning, and how to do the right thing always to ensure our littlest learners get the Early Intervention they need during such a critical window. Angela’s attitude and expertise has allowed us to do even greater things for the Brooklyn community, and for that we couldn’t be more thankful.
