YUPRO Placement’s Ainsley Castro Named SIA 2023 DEI Influencer

BOSTON, Massachusetts —June 5, 2023 — YUPRO Placement has once again been recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) for its commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year, YUPRO Placement’s Senior Director of Workforce Solutions, Ainsley Castro, was listed among a distinguished group of DEI Influencers. In publishing its annual list of DEI Influencers, SIA, the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions, singles out those individuals from across the workforce solutions ecosystem who stand out in their actions and commitment to advancing DEI in their organizations and communities.

As an Afro-Latina woman and a first-generation American who grew up in inner-city Boston, Castro knows firsthand how equity can change a person’s life. She didn’t start her career in DEI, but a volunteering opportunity to provide a financial literacy program in the inner city sparked a fire within Castro. She knew she wanted to continue to provide people with the tools and resources they need to be successful, and YUPRO Placement allows her to carry out that mission.

“I myself am a product of non-profit organizations that helped cultivate my professional journey,” Castro says. “And now, I’m dedicated to helping others like me develop the skills and social capital to help them on their own journey.”

Castro helped launch the YUPRO Placement Earn + Learn Apprenticeship program which provides talent with opportunities in about 150 Fortune 500 Companies. When the program was piloted, Castro hoped to place 60 alumni who were unemployed due to the pandemic, but within a month, she was able to place 120 alumni in apprenticeships across the nation. She is proud that her efforts have helped put so many people on meaningful career pathways toward sustainable incomes.

As Senior Director of Workforce Solutions, Castro also educates corporate partners on how to hire and retain skills-first talent with career pathways that can create full-time opportunities within IT, software development, project management, quality assurance, and more. 

“A lot of DEI work is having those difficult conversations directly with senior leadership about how they can drive more hiring for diverse talent across their departments,” she explains, adding that this collaboration provides these leaders with the necessary resources to retain that talent as well.

The DE&I Influencer website spotlights all of the individual influencers, who also appear in the May/June 2023 issue of Staffing Industry Review magazine.

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About YUPRO Placement

YUPRO Placement champions skills-first hiring by sourcing, recruiting, retaining, and advancing traditionally overlooked talent. A mission-driven placement firm, we serve as the connector between forward-thinking employers, a national upskilling partner network, and career-ready talent. With on-the-job coaching, upskilling, and wraparound supports for placed candidates, YUPRO Placement creates pathways to upward economic mobility and workplace diversity. The result: a high performing workforce with the skills to drive positive career and business outcomes. Learn how placement with social impact is better business at yupro.com