Magdalena Beltrán-del Olmo,
Director of Communications
 agdalena
Beltrán-del Olmo was raised in Salinas, California, where she was surrounded by bountiful
fields and a loving family. She also witnessed the struggles of a very real class divide.
Her father, who was a farmworker and field supervisor, told her, “Don’t forget
where you came from and what you’ve been through,” and she has always tried to
follow his advice.
   Beltrán-del
Olmo’s parents valued education, community service and an appreciation of their
Mexican heritage. “In the home, we used Spanish, but we were also expected to do well
in school, get good grades and speak English perfectly,” she said.
Among other community activities, Beltrán-del Olmo’s mother helped migrant
farmworkers’ children obtain health and social services. The Beltrán family also
lived just blocks from a United Farm Workers’ union headquarters and participated in
the farmworkers’ rights movement spearheaded by Cesar Chavez.
“I grew up really knowing the struggle of farmworkers, and I witnessed a lot of
hardship,” Beltrán-del Olmo said.
Because her parents insisted on college preparatory courses not easily accessed by
Latino students at her high school, Beltrán- del Olmo was well prepared for her studies
at California State University, Northridge. She graduated with honors with degrees in
journalism and Mexican-American studies. It was also through university contacts that she
met her future husband, Frank del Olmo, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times.
Beltrán-del Olmo’s first job after college was with a bilingual public radio
station in Salinas, where she won a national award for a domestic violence production. She
went on to work for the California Chicano News Media Association — where she helped
300 people from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds land jobs in journalism
— and then as a reporter for the Orange County Register.
She gained added experience in strategic communications in her work with Coronado
Communications, a firm specializing in social marketing. She managed projects such as the
California tobacco education campaign and the 1986 amnesty legalization campaign.
Beltrán-del Olmo transferred her skills to the field of health when she became
director of public affairs and communications for one of the largest California service
areas of Kaiser Permanente. It was during this time that her two-year-old son, Frankie,
was diagnosed with autism.
"To be told my son had no future was the loneliest, saddest, most painful
experience I’ve ever had," Beltrán-del Olmo said. But she and her husband
researched and obtained the best treatments for Frankie, and now, at age seven, he has
made incredible progress.
"It’s such a joy to see him now doing things that other children do
automatically, like pretend and play and ask complex questions," she said.
In 1996, Beltrán-del Olmo left Kaiser to join TCWF as director of communications,
where she oversees all external communications, including the Foundation’s
publications, website and media relations.
"It sounds simple, but it’s a big job — how to tell the story of TCWF
and what the funding means for the health of the people of California. It helps, though,
when you believe in what you’re doing," she said.
"What TCWF attempts to achieve through its grantmaking is a service to the
community that was so much a part of my growing up. We’re talking about real people
and real benefits, and that’s what makes the work interesting and meaningful."
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