Betty Castor

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Betty Castor
Castor in 1984
President of the University of South Florida System
In office 1994–1999
Preceded by	Robert Bryan
Succeeded by	Thomas Tighe
Education Commissioner of Florida
In office January 6, 1987 – January 3, 1994
Governor	Bob Martinez Lawton Chiles
Preceded by	Ralph Turlington
Succeeded by	Doug Jamerson
Member of the Florida Senate
In office 1982–1986
Preceded by	David H. McClain[1]
Succeeded by	John A. Grant Jr.
Constituency	21st district
In office 1976–1978
Personal details
Born	Elizabeth Bowe (1941-05-11) May 11, 1941 (age 83) Glassboro, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Frank Castor ​ ​ (m. 1965; div. 1978)​ Samuel P. Bell III ​ ​ (m. 1989; died 2023)​
Children	3, including Kathy and Karen
Education	Rowan University (BA) University of Miami (MEd)

Elizabeth Castor (née Bowe; born May 11, 1941) is an American educator and former politician. Castor was elected to the Florida Senate and as Florida Education Commissioner, and she subsequently served as the President of the University of South Florida, and President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Her public service included three terms in the Florida State Senate and one term as a Hillsborough County Commissioner. In 2004, she was the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat of retiring Senator Bob Graham and was narrowly defeated by Mel Martinez.

After leaving elected politics, Castor was the director of the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida and later became chair of the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board.^[2] She also works with Ruth's List Florida,^[3] a group dedicated to recruiting and aiding qualified Democratic women candidates, receiving the Architect of Change Award ^[4] from them in May 2018.