Rank: 67
Bonnie Castillo
Executive director, National Nurses United
With nearly 225,000 members, National Nurses United is the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses. The organization has won more than 20 new union elections since 2020. Last year, 75,000 nurses at 120 facilities won contracts, some of which were first contracts. Castillo, executive director since 2018, previously was director of the Registered Nurse Response Network, NNU’s disaster relief program, in which she coordinated nursing volunteers following weather-related catastrophes in Haiti, Louisiana, Texas, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. The union is a strong supporter of Medicare for All, and Castillo advocated on its behalf in congressional testimony in 2022. Under her leadership, the union this year also lobbied for the passage of federal nursing staffing standards legislation and the Workplace Violence Prevention Act, among other bills.