The Chandler Cultural Foundation announces the addition of Erika Castro to its Managing Board. Appointed by Mayor Kevin Hartke, Castro is a new resident in Chandler, where she lives with her husband and three young daughters.

"As a proud daughter of immigrants, I've always been civically involved, but hadn't really experienced the arts until I was an adult," says Castro. "You can really learn so much about the world through arts experiences, seeing different cultures, different ideas, and so its become really important to me to give those experiences to my kids and make them available to our community, especially the underserved communities who have never experienced the arts."

The Arizona native has been an employee with SRP for more than 12 years, first in Community Stewardship and now in the company's Community Engagement Strategy group. In her roles at SRP, Castro has been a long-standing champion to foster Education, Public/Civic, Environmental, Health and Human Service and Arts and Culture efforts in the community.

For the last three years, she has been the Chair of !Hablamos! SRP, an SRP Employee Resource Group which creates opportunities that promote professional growth for employees, encourages community involvement, fosters a culturally diverse workforce and hosts the popular annual SRP Salsa Challenge which benefits local nonprofits.

"Erika brings such a fresh perspective to our Board," says David Woodruff, Board Chair for the Chandler Cultural Foundation. "She creates such meaningful and impactful partnerships in the community, and is an incredible advocate and leader. We are thrilled to have her join us."