Former head delegate, Jose Luis Castro ’88 told students early this February that the Pace University’s New York City Model UN program offered him important training in writing, speech-giving and diplomacy. These key skills come in handy in his work as deputy executive director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and vice president of the World Lung Foundation, started by him and two other Pace NYC MUN alumni, Peter Baldini, Dyson ’87 and Andrew Rendeiro, Dyson ’87.
After graduating from Pace, Castro, who also has an MPA from the University of Pennsylvania, put the lessons he learned in policymaking into practice. He worked for the City of Philadelphia before moving back to New York City, playing an instrumental role in turning around the tuberculosis epidemic of the early 1990s. After having simulated the process of UN decisionmaking in college, he went on to work for the UN World Health Organization in India. Pace awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2005.