A small yellowed newspaper clipping in Norma A. Diaz’ Bay Boulevard office in Chula Vista reminds her how far she has come. In the clip, she is pictured as a 14-year-old student filing patients’ charts at the San Ysidro Health Center as a participant in a Southwest Junior High School work experience program.

In April, Diaz was named chief executive officer of Community Health Group, a health maintenance organization rooted in the San Ysidro Health Center. With 160 employees and a $90 million budget, the company provides 90,000 members with commercial, semi-private, semi-subsidized and/or Medi-Cal health plans.

Diaz, 40, shakes her head looking at the clip, and says, “I never dreamed then that I’d be CEO someday.”

Those who know her well, like Doris Vanderpool, the company’s human resource generalist, aren’t surprised to see Diaz in this position. Vanderpool, who has worked with Diaz for 10 years, encouraged her to seek the top job when longtime CEO Gabriel Arce retired in December. Diaz was named interim CEO in January and, following a national search for a new top administrator, was named permanent CEO April 1.

“She was not selected as CEO at first because she did not apply,” says founding board member and secretary Paul Dato. “Norma came into the company at a lower level and worked her way up. She has grown in experience; she has grown into the job.” Dato cites maturation in her skills as a manager and a problem solver. “One of the best qualities Norma has is in dealing with problems. She is not wishy-washy. She is very direct.”

The Community Health Group, observing its 20th anniversary this year, was formed as a joint venture with San Ysidro Health Center and Bay General Hospital in Chula Vista, now Scripps Memorial Hospital. Arce headed the single board that ran the health center and the health group.

In 1997, Arce resigned as CEO for the clinic, which then obtained its own board. Arce remained health group CEO until his retirement last December. Diaz worked closely with Arce and with the board as she progressed, moving from personnel supervisor to personnel manager and then to human resources director, before becoming assistant CEO. Her continued growth in managing personnel was apparent as she reported regularly to the board, Dato says.

Diaz’ personal lifestyle has not changed much in the months since she started her new job. She still begins each day, seven days a week, with a 5 a.m. health club workout. She walks most evenings with her husband, Joseph Garcia, in their central Chula Vista neighborhood. She still travels at every opportunity, maintains a close relationship with her widowed mother, and remains accessible to any employee in the company.

Growing Up

A San Diego native, Diaz moved with her parents and siblings to Los Angeles when she was 5. The children vacationed with their grandparents that summer, she recalls, “and when we returned our house had burned down.” Her mother was seriously injured and remained hospitalized for nine months. “My parents had to start over. We were homeless, though that word was not coined yet.”

When she was 6, the family returned to San Diego, moving into Villa Nueva, a federally assisted apartment complex in San Ysidro that frequently received negative press coverage. After having seen her burned out home and living in crowded conditions with an uncle, Diaz found Villa Nueva very nice, new, clean and large, and for the first time she had her own bedroom. “I thought we were wealthy,” she says, “and there were lots of activities — scouts, Y, parties.”

“My dad was strict about grades,” she recalls. He encouraged her to participate in organized activities, “but sensing I was somewhat of a rebel, he hardly ever said ‘no’ to me. One time I asked him if I could have a boyfriend. He asked if I would continue to get straight A’s, keep my job and keep playing volleyball. I said ‘yes.’” So did her father.

When Diaz began working at the San Ysidro Health Center, she went daily by school bus for her sixth period class. That became a regular job when she was hired as a file clerk that summer, making $2.95 an hour. One of six children in the family, she continued to work at the clinic while she attended Montgomery High School and San Diego State University. She earned her master’s degree later at National University.

In 1982, when the Community Health Group was created, Diaz continued with the health group as a clerk, frequently working unpopular evening shifts that allowed her to take classes and work at other jobs.

“I had three jobs during most of that time,” Diaz says. Her health group job provided her with living and spending money. She also worked at the Spring Valley Swap Meet on weekends for 10 years, earning what paid for her education. The third job, as a respite care worker (or baby sitter) for disabled children on weekend nights, provided her travel money.

She discovered travel — and much more — at age 16 when she was appointed as a teen representative on the board of the YWCA representing the South Bay. “It completely changed my life,” she says, of the chance to attend conferences and discover what she could achieve if she went to college. “It was overwhelming. I had no idea what a board was.”

As a board member, she traveled to Dallas and Washington, D.C., flying and traveling out of California for the first time. Her role model was Christina Molina, then a San Diego State student who worked at the YW and is now a psychologist for the San Ysidro School District. “I wanted to be just like her,” Diaz says. “I was totally impressed.” Diaz’ connection to the YW remains; last year she was a Tribute To Women and Industry honoree.

Diaz graduated from SDSU in 1985, the same year she met her future husband, Joseph Garcia, on a double date. She got what she calls her first professional job as personnel supervisor in 1986.

Diaz and Garcia, director of marketing for Community Health Group, didn’t marry for 12 years, but when he asked her on a Friday in 1997, she said yes, and they were married that Sunday. Not all their friends and family could be there, so later they hosted an informal (jeans and T-shirts) party in the Chula Vista Marina Blue Room.

Both had homes in Chula Vista, so they flipped a coin and moved to his house where they have had a steady flow of nephews and other relatives temporarily living with them. “I was lucky to find someone who likes his work like I do and who is goal oriented, who cares for his family and loves to travel,” she says.

As she performs her duties as CEO, Diaz finds herself in a more public role than ever before, with meetings throughout most days. She continues to receive the salary she earned as human resources director through June 30, when that contract expires. That’s an arrangement she requested when she was appointed interim CEO, “in case I didn’t like the job.” So far, she likes the job, and when July 1 rolls around, she will be ready to sign that new contract.