HPU alumna and Trustee Jill Castilla with her husband Marcus.
HPU alumna and trustee Jill Castilla ‘97 grew up in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a small town that reminds her a lot of Hawaiʻi. It is a place where people know one another, look out for one another, and step in when help is needed.
Jill Castilla received the HPU Paul Loo Young Alumni Award in 2002. The award’s namesake, the late Paul Loo, is pictured in the first row, far right.
Located in eastern Oklahoma, Okmulgee was shaped by hardship in the past. The region was hit hard by the oil bust during the Great Depression and, decades later, by statewide energy downturns in the 1980s that collapsed oil prices. Opportunities were limited then, and expectations were often practical rather than aspirational.
Castilla was raised by her single father, a probation and parole officer. She attended Okmulgee High School, one of the most challenged school districts in the state. The focus at the time, she recalled, was not on college, but on getting students through high school and into stable lives.
“I was academically focused. I wanted to do a lot with my life and did not get a lot of encouragement to go to college,” Castilla said. “This is one of the most challenged school districts in our state.”
Determined to earn a college degree, Castilla paid her own way to Oklahoma State University, working overnight shifts at a grocery store in Stillwater while attending classes during the day as an engineering major. After a year and a half, she ran out of money and returned home, living in a storage building without plumbing behind her father’s house. She took another grocery store job, intent on saving enough to return to college.
It was a conversation with a customer one night that changed everything moving forward. The customer suggested the military and the GI Bill as a pathway forward. At 19, she enlisted.
Castilla became a construction surveyor, learning discipline, accountability, and how to operate under pressure. Living frugally, she saved nearly $15,000, determined to reclaim her education. Then, in a painful lesson in financial vulnerability, that money disappeared after a family member forged her signature and drained her checking account.
“I didn’t know better from a financial literacy standpoint,” Castilla said. “And I never got it back.”
With little left but momentum and the determination to overcome obstacles, Castilla found a small college in South Texas that offered her a full ride. She packed her belongings into a trash bag and went. There, she met her husband. Both were in ROTC. When his orders came unexpectedly, stationed to Hawaiʻi, Castilla arrived in Honolulu as a chemical engineering senior with unfinished business.
Castilla took a job at Crazy Shirts in the International Marketplace in Waikiki, working sales support at the company’s largest store. She loved it. More importantly, the role revealed something about herself she hadn’t fully recognized yet.
She tracked inventory, studied tourist demographics, and aligned products with who was walking through the door. Japanese visitors, she noticed, gravitated to one particular cat T-shirt. The store never sold out. Revenue climbed. Her supervisor, Sandy Wooden, took notice.
“Sandy told me I had great analytical skills and that I liked people,” Castilla said. “She suggested I think about business.”
That suggestion echoed an earlier turning point in Castilla’s life.
While taking supplemental courses at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Castilla enrolled at HPU, taking Wooden’s advice and switching from engineering to business. Stationed at Schofield Barracks, Castilla attended classes simultaneously at HPU’s downtown campus and on the military campus, pushing herself to finish on time.
“When I got to HPU, the University was great about accepting my credits,” she said. “That confidence in me to accept those credits really made a difference.”
The pace was relentless. Most of the time, Castilla was carrying up to 33 credits per semester, moving between campuses while balancing military obligations and family life. Downtown classrooms were filled with international students from around the world, alongside military classmates juggling deployments and coursework.
Jill Castilla with friends on her HPU graduation day.
Faculty brought real-world experience into the classroom, teaching not just theory, but practice. “Professors are practitioners,” Castilla said. “They work in the real world. That practicality makes students laser focused. You’re solving real problems.”
Pregnant with her first child and determined to stay on schedule, Castilla studied wherever she could—at Denny’s in Waikiki at 4 a.m., along Fort Street Mall before classes started, late at night, early in the morning.
In 1997, she walked across the stage in her third trimester, degree in hand, earning her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in finance.
Only years later did Castilla fully understand how deeply HPU had prepared her.
“When I was at the Federal Reserve, I worked alongside professionals who went to Ivy League schools,” she said. “My analytical skills were right there with theirs, and that was because of HPU.”
In 2002, Castilla received HPU’s Paul Loo Young Alumni Award, an early acknowledgment of a graduate whose leadership and impact were already taking shape.
She continued her service in both the U.S. Army and the Oklahoma Army National Guard, experiences that further shaped her leadership philosophy and deepened her commitment to those she served alongside. That foundation carried her into public service at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, where she spent more than a decade in roles of increasing responsibility.
Her final position at the Fed placed her at the center of a national transformation, managing the check infrastructure system during the implementation of Check 21, one of the first major modernizations of the U.S. payments system.
Alongside her professional responsibilities, Castilla continued to invest deeply in her education. She earned her master’s degree in economics from the University of Oklahoma while working full time and raising two children, adding a third in the years that followed. She went on to complete post-graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin’s Graduate School of Banking and The Wharton School, further refining her strategic perspective on financial leadership.
In 2009, Castilla joined Citizens Bank of Edmond during a moment when both the institution and the broader financial sector were under extraordinary strain. Over time, she led a careful, values-driven transformation, restoring trust and centering the bank’s mission on community impact and long-term stewardship.
Today, she serves as Chairman, President and CEO and is the bank’s largest shareholder. Under her leadership, Citizens Bank of Edmond has become one of only 14 banks in the U.S. designated by the Federal Reserve as women-owned. During this period, Castilla has also worked twice with entrepreneur Mark Cuban on initiatives designed to expand access to capital and reimagine community banking.
Together, these efforts, and others led by her team, have impacted hundreds of thousands of small businesses and millions of people nationwide, reinforcing the bank’s role as both a financial institution and a platform for meaningful economic participation. The distinction of being women-owned, Castilla notes, is not a title, but a responsibility. The bank has since been honored nationally for innovation, leadership, and community banking.
In August 2023, Castilla brought her personal history and professional expertise together with the launch of ROGER Bank, a digital-first financial institution designed to serve active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. Founded through Citizens Bank of Edmond, ROGER Bank was built to remove barriers many new recruits face, including entering basic training without access to reliable banking services. Veteran-owned, led, and operated, the platform offers accessible, low-cost financial products alongside financial literacy support, ensuring those who serve are not left navigating the financial system alone.
In addition to her role at Citizens Bank, Castilla serves nationally as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (Emeritus) and as a member of several financial, educational, and healthcare-focused boards.
In 2022, Castilla returned to HPU as a member of the Board of Trustees, bringing her journey back to the classrooms she once entered as a determined, working student. Knowing firsthand what it means to balance work, family, service, and school, Castilla understands the demands placed on military-affiliated students and the power of flexible, hybrid education.
“I’m grateful to be able to represent the military student body,” she said. “I lived that experience. HPU has served military communities for decades, and I want to help strengthen and grow those opportunities.”
For Castilla, success is measured less by titles than by outcomes, by healthy families, resilient communities, and institutions that serve people well.
“When the people in your life are healthy and your community is doing well,” Castilla says, “that’s when I know I’m succeeding.”
