Dr. Elizabeth Castle was born in Baltimore, Maryland the middle child of five and raised with a Baptist upbringing. Born with a vision disability, she has worn glasses since before she was two years old. Elizabeth was diagnosed as legally blind at age five and dealt with standard vision accommodations throughout her school years. It was around age ten that she began going blind and was fitted for special corrective Scleral contact lenses. Although an accident, in high school playing varsity basketball caused her to completely lose her sight in her right eye and forced an operation.
Elizabeth was very active and involved in her all girls’ high school. She enjoyed music and was their lead soloist. From an early age, Elizabeth has enjoyed things that require involvement, community, team work and serving others.
After high school, Elizabeth got married and started a family as she pursued her degree in criminal, but a tumultuous marriage and raising four children made it difficult to complete her education at that time. As a single mother, Elizabeth worked various jobs from voice overs and sales for the local radio station to liaison coordinator at Baltimore City jail.
After some time, she remarried to a man she worked with at the jail. At thirty years old, she and her husband moved to central Florida where they joined her sister-in-law’s church, and Elizabeth started back to school. In 1982, she was the first recipient of the Willie Burton Award at Valencia Community College, which is awarded to students to overcome challenges through hard times and maintain a great GPA. However, an emergency operation caused an early withdrawal from her classes and school. Through the church, they became very involved in various outreaches such as homeless ministry, prison and youth ministry, and missions throughout the state of Florida and the surrounding islands.
In time, Elizabeth managed to gain a full scholarship and was awarded the Martin Luther King Scholarship to the University of Central Florida. While raising four children with her new husband, spreading herself through various ministries, and working on her degree, Elizabeth discovered her gifts as they began to manifest to those in which she was surrounded, despite her obvious disabilities. She took additional classes at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and in 2010, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business with emphasis on psychology at American Intercontinental University (AIU) with honors. In less than a year, Elizabeth had obtained her master’s degree in Education in from AIU.
In 1989, Elizabeth and her husband became ordained ministers under the development of Apostle Leon Wallace Bishop in Nassau Bahamas. They formed their own ministry called the House of Issachar where they continued the outreach of the church on a broader level.
In her fifties, throughout two decades of ministries, Elizabeth had worked with inner city communities, inner-city clean-up programs for surrounding areas, set up and facilitated food banks and fed homeless (often over a hundred at a time), assisted families with multiple generations under one roof on restoration programs, partnered with Habitat for Humanity, implemented financial literacy programs, and worked alongside Representative for State of Alabama, Dr. James Gordon to assist low income families education opportunities and financial literacy and planning classes.
Locally, Elizabeth is the coordinator for Kwanza, which recognizes values of black individuals in the community programs, working with the Parks and Recreation Department in Charleston. She is the National State Director of Juneteenth in South Carolina, works side by side with Hollywood, South Carolina Mayor Haywood providing resources for the local community and partnering with local the YMCA to create programs like Jacobs Ladder, an advocacy program for “at risk youth.” In this program, she is also the CEO and director of Diaspora Historical Heritage Society, an organization created to foster economic opportunities between African and American businesses.
Internationally, Elizabeth helps provide resources of financial support, food, educational support, import and export opportunities, biblical training, and area resources for food, clothing, and education, as well as school construction for Resurrected Life Home for Children orphanage in Kenya, Africa.
Currently, every week Elizabeth can be seen on her Lowcountry CW talk show “A Deeper You” or heard every Thursday from 3–4 p.m. on Ark Radio (www.thearkradio.com). Additionally, she belongs to USA President International Ministers Fellowship, Director of South Carolina International Women Leadership Association, and the American Association of Christian Counselors.
Moving forward, Dr. Castle is pursuing a doctorate in philosophy and counseling with a concentration in Life Coaching from Newburgh College and Seminary, and because of her faithful years in ministry she has received an honorary Doctorate in Systematic Theology. Elizabeth also plans to open a home for women and children called Hannah’s house of Refuge Of Peace, available to women transitioning from any life crisis that leaves them homeless.
As a firm believer in education, Elizabeth is also establishing a Bible College available online for people to acquire an associate degree in biblical studies through the Evangelical Bible College and Seminary. She aspires to have classes ready for enrollment by Fall 2018. She offers Christian-based counseling to all people on all topics but specializes with families in crisis.
As you can see, Elizabeth is a community activist who encourages people to use their unrealized strengths to overcome life’s challenges and is a living example of the possibility of overcoming obstacles using them as opportunities.