By Olivia Nerpouni
Maria Damian’s career path is anything but conventional. From the halls of hospitals to the classrooms of America’s schools and the stages of international entertainment, Damian is proving that leadership is not confined to one industry. Instead, it can thrive wherever passion and purpose exist.Â
Maria’s journey began in medicine, where she built an impressive career as a nurse. Trained in the Philippines, she graduated at the top of her class before moving to California, where she worked in neonatal intensive care, oncology, and occupational health. For decades, her life revolved around patient care. But in 2014, a diagnosis of breast cancer changed everything. Confronting her mortality pushed Damian to reassess her priorities. Surviving treatment left her with a renewed sense of determination to make the most of her second chance at life.Â
That turning point was a shift in her career. Damian began overseeing dialysis centers, ultimately founding Legacy Dialysis in 2020. The company has since grown into 12 clinics across Southern California with more than 60 employees. Legacy Dialysis is built on the belief that cultural understanding and compassion are just as important as medical precision. And under her leadership, the company has earned accolades such as Outstanding Dialysis Center of the Year (2023–2024), proof of the impact her team is making in underserved communities.
While Damian was transforming healthcare operations, she was also pursuing a long-held passion in entertainment. By 2021, she founded Legacy Entertainment Production LLC, a company designed to spotlight underrepresented voices, particularly of Filipino and Filipino-American descent. Her work in entertainment ranges from artist management to live event production, bringing visibility to talents like Christian Bables, Ali Caldwell, and Emmy-nominated actor/singer Max Ehrich. With Legacy Entertainment, Damian builds careers and creative communities. This duality of healthcare on one hand and art on the other might seem worlds apart, but for Damian, the industries are connected. Both represent opportunities to care for people, whether by saving lives through dialysis or promoting voices through entertainment. Regardless, her leadership reflects empathy, strategy, and an instinct for seeing potential where others might not.
Today, Damian has taken on a new challenge as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of RCC Staffing Solutions USA, a New York-based company that specializes in teacher placement. Education may appear like a third reinvention, but in reality, it reflects the same mission that runs through all her ventures: empowering people. Founded to address the nationwide teacher shortage, RCC Staffing Solutions has spent four years placing highly-skilled educators across the United States. Unlike many staffing companies, RCC takes a more personalized approach to education, recognizing that each state has unique challenges. The company’s team regularly travels across the country to meet school leaders and provide customized staffing strategies.
Maria Damian with Romer Gutierrez Jazo, CEO of RCC Staffing Solutions
RCC also plays an important role in bringing international educators to U.S. classrooms. Through J1 and H1B visa sponsorships, the organization helps teachers from around the world find opportunities in American schools. This fills staffing gaps while also enriching classrooms with global perspectives. For teachers, the process can be life-changing; relocating across continents to pursue their profession is daunting, but Damian’s role with this is to ensure the company provides both logistical and emotional support, creating an environment where educators can thrive.
Behind RCC is CEO Romer Gutierrez Jazo, who was raised in the Philippines and has devoted much of his life to education and philanthropy. While Jazo provides the vision, Damian is the one who ensures its execution. As COO, she oversees day-to-day operations, from finance and marketing to sales and resource management. More importantly, she ensures that RCC delivers on its promise of making quality education accessible to students nationwide. Her ability to move between industries comes from listening to her instincts and refusing to be confined by traditional boundaries. Each new role she has taken on has increased her impact, touching more lives in more ways.
Each chapter of Maria Damian’s life, whether defined by medicine, art, history, or education, has been impacted by her ability to turn challenges into opportunities and her refusal to limit herself to one career path. She is an example of what it means to lead with resilience and compassion. Damian’s life reminds us that success is about embracing all passions. In doing so, she proves that true leadership is expansive and multifaceted.
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