Gilda Castillo-Sanchez was born in Nicaragua. Since her earlier years, she has enjoyed her role as a teacher working with young children within her family and neighborhood. She obtained her Elementary and High School teacher M.S. degree in Social Study in 1977. She was delegated to the Director of General Somoza Elementary. From there, she decided to come to the USA to learn the English language and return to implement a bi-lingual system in the school where she was working. That same year, she got married to her husband and came back to the USA. Her and her husband established themselves in Chicago, Illinois, where they had two daughters. They moved to Miami in 1980, and she worked at Centro Mater Preschool Head Start center for 10 years as a preschool Head Start teacher. 

She further continued her education, obtaining the ECE credits necessary to meet the requirements and alignments in Psychology. Later, she was promoted to Curriculum Specialist at Good Shepherd Learning Center, where she worked for 5 years. In 1994, she was promoted to center Director at La Scala Learning Center Head Start, where she worked for 5 years. In 1998, she was offered an opportunity to work for St Alban’s Child Enrichment Center as an Associate Director and Education Manager.  She remained there for 10 years, from 1998-2008, where she achieved accreditation with NAEYC, later serving as Early childhood programs validator.

In 2008 Sunflowers Academy, a private school, decided to expand their services with the Head Start program. They needed a director who had Head Start Program expertise. The offer was extended and accepted in 2008. She worked with Sunflowers Academy from 2008-2013.  During these years she also served as CDA trainer and professional development specialist. She later received an offer from Easterseals South Florida to implement the Head Start Program in several areas of education, social service, mental health and disability. She started working for Easterseals in 2013, where she is still currently serving as the Head Start Center Director and Education Manager of 6 centers. In 2019 she was invited to participate in BLI organization that inspired me to learn more about financial and business organization, later as current serving as mentor, supporting others to be successful in their  childcare business.