Nancy Castle, director for the Center for Non-Governmental Organization Leadership and Development and a faculty member since June 1991, will retire Jan. 1.

The Center for Non-Governmental Organization Leadership and Development is an interdisciplinary center that serves as a resource for students interested in philanthropy and offers the Community Leadership and Civic Engagement program. Castle has been the director for the center since 2011.

“I feel sad I’ll leave good friends, but you know these days, with Facebook and internet and so on, it’s not like I’m moving to China or something,” Castle said. “So I’ll get to stay in touch and have lunch with people. It’s a good time for me to go”.

Castle came to NIU 40 years ago as a junior for transfer student and remained to acquire bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. After nine years as a research assistant at the University of Arkansas, Castle returned to NIU to teach about allied health communicative disorders.

Ben Bingle, outreach coordinator for the Center for Non-Governmental Organization Leadership and Development, said Castle always puts students first and keeps the community in mind when developing engaged learning programs.

“I think one of the things that I’ll remember the most is how much she contributed to the center,” Bingle said. ”Nancy’s always looking for ways to encourage engaged learning from students, and so she always has kind of that practical real-world learning experience in mind, and she’s looking for ways to benefit the community, but also benefit our students.”

Sandi Splansky, academic advising director of the College of Health and Human Sciences, met Castle 15 years ago when she and Castle served on a committee in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, Splansky said.

“Whenever I think about working with Nancy there’s always humor, and because she’s got such a great sense of humor and is so engaging that everything she does she just makes it fun and at the same time, you know. She’s very impactful,” Splansky said.

Castle said she is looking forward to spending a lot of time with her husband as well as golfing, a hobby she took lessons for every summer until work got in the way. She met her husband while golfing and said she really wants to be able to go back to that and spend time with him.

Castle said she has had a career where she’s been able to work hard, but still have a blast, and help students who want to make a difference.

“I hate to leave Northern,” Castle said. “I hate to leave a blast, but, you know, sometimes it’s time to just move on, and I think that’s my time right now.”