Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan Leads Local Partners in Keeping Our County Healthy
By Melanie Slone
“People don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” says Dr. Sayone. “Follow your passion.” His passion has led him to a public health leadership role.
Born in Nigeria to Sri Lankan refugees, Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, who asked us to call him Dr. Sayone, has lived the immigrant, asylum-seeker experience, overcoming adversity and eventually becoming the Public Health Officer for the County of San Diego.
His family arrived in Canada as refugees with little money. “Being an immigrant, growing up with very little, but a lot of family and a lot of joy, really taught me to appreciate the community,” says Dr. Sayone, “to appreciate friendship, camaraderie, and not as much the material things.”
Dr. Sayone’s father was eventually accepted to a residency program in New York, where he redid his medical residency to license there, working upon completion at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in Buffalo.
“Growing up the way I did really made me want to be service-oriented and contribute,” says Dr. Sayone. “Even though we had very little, my mother would always pull me aside and say, Sayone, you have to give back.”
Today, he is focused on community engagement, leading teams that bring service providers, health institutions, nonprofit organizations, and community members together. “I love systems thinking,” says Dr. Sayone. “I love individual patient care and people care, and I love contributing to a better society.”
The Path to Service-oriented Medicine
Dr. Sayone studied to become a physician. Yet, even in college he was geared toward the public service side of medicine. “I loved engaging with people, listening to them, and responding to their needs,” he says. “This field just resonated so much with me because it is a way to keep people healthy but also work on these upstream drivers of health,” including health literacy, overall education, access to food and healthcare, and many other drivers of personal and community wellness.
Dr. Sayone worked in New York with the Center for Asian American Health, with immigrant health programs, and with taxi drivers, setting up health fairs tailored to their needs. “I really appreciated the opportunity to give back,” he says, “and I learned about public health.”
Becoming board certified in Public Health and Preventative Medicine trained him to understand the systems level of health services. His early work focused on tobacco control and chronic disease prevention.
Then, in 2015, Dr. Sayone was named as the deputy public health officer for San Diego County; since May 2025, he has been the public health officer.
“There’s a lot of uniqueness about San Diego,” says Dr. Sayone. The county includes both urban and rural areas with many different demographics in 18 incorporated cities and a huge unincorporated area; is home to the largest border crossing in the country; boasts large Latino and other populations; has the greatest number of tribal nations; has a large military presence; and houses many small farms and farmworkers, he explains.
One strategy has served as a blueprint for other counties—Live Well San Diego.
“Live Well San Diego is a vision for our region to live safe and healthy and thrive that gives us a framework most counties don’t have,” says Dr. Sayone. Being healthy means maximizing our society at work, recreation, and rest, “not dealing with chronic pain or worrying about their kids’ next asthma attack,” for example.
County social services partners with healthcare providers and community-based organizations to deliver quality care across the county. The goal is to make it easier for people to stay healthy and meet the Live Well San Diego Top 10 Indicators: life expectancy, quality of life, education, unemployment rate, income, security/overall crime rate, physical environment/air quality, built environment (distance to parks), food insecurity, and community involvement/volunteerism.
“Even though we, the county staff, are the backbone, we are interdependent, and we need everyone to come to the table and collaborate,” he says, including cities, healthcare providers, schools, nonprofits, and others.
As the fifth-largest county in the United States, San Diego must “do this literally hand in hand and side by side with the community,” says Dr. Sayone. “We can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.”
The community leadership teams help break down the strategy. North County has two leadership teams, North Coastal and North Inland, which bring together county outreach workers, local providers, and community members. “We empower the community to learn and be part of the solution,” says Dr. Sayone.
If you want to participate in these strategies, you can reach out to your kids’ school, your health clinic, the county center, or local nonprofit organizations that are part of the county leadership team.
Latino Health Factors
“There have historically been a lot of challenges for various minority populations, and Latinos are no exception,” says Dr. Sayone.
The Latino community is more vulnerable to chronic diseases such as childhood asthma, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, including stomach cancer, he says. Covid-19 also hit this group hard due to risk factors like preexisting conditions.
“I would say for the Latino or Hispanic community to be mindful of not just certain health outcomes but really thinking about what are driving those health outcomes,” says Dr. Sayone, “the behaviors, the factors like less access to care, lower levels of health literacy, and socioeconomic status.”
Dr. Sayone recommends Medi-Cal enhanced care management (CalAIM), which provides extra community support. For example, “if you’re Hispanic and you’re pregnant, you could get access to other benefits; if you’re a justice involved, you can get access to certain benefits as you’re being released from incarceration; if you’re experiencing homelessness, you can get access to a coach who will follow you for a year, help make sure you are connected to all of the resources that you need.”
For those without medical insurance, community health centers charge on a sliding scale. The Live Well Centers also offer free vaccines, and the North Coastal Public Health Center has a sexual health clinic.
Another issue Dr. Sayone is concerned about is social isolation. “Many cultures, including the Hispanic or Latino culture, really thrive on community, getting together often and being together and experiencing things together,” he says. “We all have to take care of each other and check in on each other.”
Finally, he warns about stigma. “In the Latino culture, as well as my culture, there is stigma on things like mental health that we all have to try to overcome.”
Tips
You don’t have to be a physician to have a significant impact on your community and public health, says Dr Sayone. “Get engaged, get involved, do what drives you. Work with community-based organizations that are making a difference.”
If you do want to study medicine, he says, don’t let anything stop you. “Just because the rest of your family didn’t complete high school or go to college, or if it’s expensive, that doesn’t mean you should set your bar lower than you could achieve,” he says. “There are organizations like First Gen Scholars that help provide opportunity for people.”
Everyone should have mentors. “Mentorship is so important. There are so many people along my path who’ve helped me get to where I’ve gotten, through the ups and downs, and are still available,” he says. “Talk to people who are in roles or jobs like ones that you aspire to.”
Dr. Sayone’s greatest wish is to continue to build trust with the community. “Our role is not to be political,” he says. “Our role as the health department is to improve health outcomes.” Working together to assess needs and design policy means giving everyone in San Diego County a voice and a role in staying healthy.
