Kristen Castor, M.A.
Lead Advocate
Kristen Castor was born in Lakewood as a person with a disability and mainstreamed herself in Jefferson County schools simply because it never occurred to her family to do anything else. The price she paid was to ride a paratransit bus through Lakewood, Golden, and Wheatridge where she became friends with many of the original founders of the Atlantis Community on their way to Fletcher Miller, a school where children with disabilities were segregated from the general population. Determined to support herself, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in the Classics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She speaks French, German, some Spanish, and some Hebrew.
In order to build up her work history, she joined the Peace Corps and taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in Liberia, West Africa, from 1978 to 1981. Upon her return, she settled in Houston, Texas, and began forging a career in ESL when romance called her to Mexico. When this partnership failed, she returned to Denver and started over, working three and four part-time jobs and eventually obtaining a teaching certificate. When it became clear that she did not have the stamina to continue in public education, she turned to Wade Blank, who recommended that she apply for a position with the Atlantis Community in Colorado Springs in 1989. That began a return to her roots in disability rights and a migration to Pueblo through a number of different jobs before joining CCDC in 1998. Her official training is in eligibility for disability benefits. She has also championed the Americans with Disabilities Act since it was passed. She now serves as a non-attorney advocate for people appealing Medicaid denials.