What does it mean to build a life that makes room for all of who you are?
Dr. Thelma Gamboa-Maldonado has been navigating that question for decades.
She started graduate school just weeks after getting married, interviewed for her doctoral program eight months pregnant, and later brought her newborn to class.
Then, during COVID, she saw a public health workforce stretched thin—and a group of students whose field experiences had suddenly disappeared.
What happened when she brought those two realities together?
And what does connection have to do with how we build our lives—and public health?
This is the Courageous Public Health Podcast, Episode 78.
Meet Dr. Thelma Gamboa-Maldonado ✨
Dr. Thelma Gamboa-Maldonado is a wife, mother of three, woman of faith, educator, and public health professional deeply committed to serving others. A Master Certified Health Education Specialist, she has nearly 20 years of experience in community-based public health, translational research, higher education, and workforce development.
Her career spans governmental public health, academia, and community-based practice. She previously held leadership roles at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and served as Organizational Change Manager in the Office of the Director at the California Department of Public Health. She was also an Assistant Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health and Director of its Promotores and Community Health Worker Academy.
Today, Dr. Gamboa-Maldonado serves as Director of Healthcare Initiatives at El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center, where she leads CHW-centered healthcare, care coordination, violence prevention, and mental health support and navigation programs. She also teaches in the Community Health Worker Certificate Program at City College of San Francisco.
Throughout her career, she has championed Promotores and Community Health Workers as trusted leaders, educators, advocates, and agents of change essential to building healthier and more equitable communities.
Conversation Highlights 🎙️
- Building a life that made room for both motherhood and a public health career—and the people and institutions that helped make that possible.
- Refusing to treat family and professional life as competing identities—and claiming herself as a whole person.
- Connecting public health departments that urgently needed help during COVID with students whose field experiences had suddenly disappeared.
- Turning an emergency response into longer-term pathways between students, universities, and governmental public health.
- Connection as a throughline across Dr. Gamboa-Maldonado’s life and work—from people and ideas to institutions and opportunities.
“I wanted to be that mom and I also wanted to be a professional. And so I’m a whole person.” — Dr. Thelma Gamboa-Maldonado
Stay in Touch 🔗
With Dr. Thelma Gamboa-Maldonado
LinkedIn ↗: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelma-gamboa-maldonado-drph-mph-mches-8346a2205/
With Dr. Kristi McClamroch
LinkedIn ↗: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch
Follow for weekly reflections on courage and leadership ↗: http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6
Speaking & Leadership Development 🤝
Dr. Kristi McClamroch partners with organizations navigating complexity through keynote presentations, workshops, and leadership development.
Her work helps leaders better understand themselves, one another, and the conditions that shape what’s possible.
To explore speaking or consulting opportunities, connect on LinkedIn ↗ or visit Courageous Public Health ↗