Redwood City – On a bright late-winter day, Colleen Chawla, San Mateo County’s new health chief, entered Ponderosa House, a locked facility on the Cordilleras Health and Healing Campus, where she chatted with residents with severe mental illness.
Another day she shared snacks with clients at the County’s Navigation Center, which helps people get off the street by providing a range of health, mental health and other services. She’s toured not only County Health’s San Mateo Medical Center and health care clinics that serve thousands of residents but also the County jails.
"I intend to get out and see what we do across the county. I want to hear from our staff and community partners that do the work and from the people they serve. There is no substitute for going and seeing," said Chawla, who is succeeding Louise Rogers as the director of the County’s largest department in number of employees (2,200) and budget size ($1.3 billion). “I want to meet as many people as I can.”
Chawla (pronounced Chavla) is taking over an agency with a primary mission “to help everyone in San Mateo County live longer and better lives.”
That’s not a quixotic goal. County Health touches nearly everyone’s life by inspecting food handlers and restaurants, monitoring and responding to disease outbreaks, conducting vaccination programs, providing health care for vulnerable residents and responding to emergencies.
Chawla comes to the Peninsula from Alameda County Health, where she served as agency director from 2017 to 2025. She previously worked in leadership and legislative roles at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
“She is pressure tested,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, who served on the search committee. “She comes from a very challenging environment budget-wise, and at a time when every piece of health care is going to be under budget threat with federal support uncertain. To have someone like that here is incredibly important.”
Home to about 750,000 people, San Mateo County regularly ranks among the healthiest counties in California and the nation. While that is good news, local health officials are quick to point out that ranking masks disparities. There is a 9-year gap between the ZIPcodes with the highest life expectancy compared to those with the lowest.
“The dream is that we aren't able to predict a person’s life expectancy based on where they live in this county. Colleen not only believes that dream, but she has the experience to realize it,” said Supervisor Noelia Corzo, who also served on the search committee. “We’re grateful she has chosen to accept the challenge.”
Rogers is retiring after more than two decades in San Mateo County Health, where she held numerous leadership positions.
“I’ve known Colleen for many years,” Rogers said. “We navigated – and weathered – many of the challenges of the pandemic together as Bay Area health directors, and she was consistently calm and thoughtful in the face of everything coming our way. She also seems to find grace and a sense of humor, as so often is needed.”
Chawla grew up in the Los Angeles County city of Gardena, where many Japanese immigrants settled during the middle of the last century, including her mother. Named by her mother, Chawla’s first name is pronounced Co-Leen.
She was drawn to San Mateo County Health by what she describes as a confident can-do attitude.
“It feels like there’s a belief that anything can happen here. There’s an ethos around innovation. A lot of great things happen here, but you don’t see a lot of big splash about it,” she said. “It just gets done, and done in a way that gets other counties to look and want to know more.”
She holds a master’s degree in public administration and health services administration from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern California.
While at USC, she discovered her life’s passion not in the classroom but at a retail job.
One day her manager, a man named Dennis, fell ill and rapidly lost weight.
“He ultimately revealed to us that he had been diagnosed with AIDS,” Chawla recalled. “Dennis, a gay man, was the first person I knew to be HIV positive.”
By chance, Chawla then ran across a rally against a bill that would provide all Californians with equal rights in the workplace regardless of sexual orientation. A policy matter suddenly became personal for her. “I was quite appalled that there would be a protest against the bill, that people would not want the bill to pass.
“'I was incensed by a system that could deny basic rights and dignity to Dennis and other LGBTQ people,” Chawla said. The rally prompted her to volunteer to staff an HIV-AIDS hotline.
“That volunteer position led to a 30-plus-year career in health and public health and policy – launched, grown and sustained by the things that matter deeply to me: the right to health, equality, equity, fairness and justice.”
At home with her husband of 21 years and their cat, Chicken, Chawla loves to cook fresh meals. She recently became scuba certified and wants to expand her underwater travel experiences.
Preston Merchant
Communications Officer
San Mateo County Health
Press Contact: (650) 867-1661
Press Email: press@smchealth.org