Lauren Young Casteel (born 1953) is an African-American activist who advocates for social justice. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2014. The daughter of Margaret Buckner and Whitney M. Young, Jr., she was born Lauren Young in

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

and moved to Colorado when she was twenty. Casteel has been a leader of the Denver Foundation, the Hunt Alternatives Fund and the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation. At the Denver Foundation, she instituted the Nonprofit Internship Program and the Nonprofit Inclusiveness Project; the second project received the

Council on Foundations The Council on Foundations, founded in 1949, is a nonprofit leadership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. The Council's mission is to provide the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to exp ...

’ Critical Impact Award. Casteel was the first black woman to head a foundation in Colorado, the first female black TV personality in Colorado and the first female senior communications advisor to a Denver mayor. She was married to Charles Casteel, an attorney. She is the mother of painter

Jordan Casteel Jordan Casteel (born 1989) is an American figurative painter. Casteel typically paints intimate portraits of friends and family members as well as neighbors and strangers in Harlem and New York. Casteel lives and works in New York City. Early l ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casteel, Lauren Young 1953 births Living people American civil rights activists Women civil rights activists African-American people People from Nebraska