Biography
Deacon Christoph Sandoval was born in East Los Angeles. His grandmother's family immigrated to Los Angeles to escape the religious persecution of 1924-1929 in Mexico. For over 50 years, he has been a community servant and a social justice advocate for the poor, sick and the dying.
By the 1960’s, like many Mexican-Americans of his generation he experienced unbearable racism. He tasted first hand the toxic effects of prejudice in his neighborhood, schools and community. Following the Watts riots, he took his first job with the Upward Bound Program to support his college tuition and to help de-escalate racial tensions in the greater Los Angeles area. It was the first time that the segregated school system attempted to build trust and relationship among communities of all colors and cultural identities. As the eldest child of six siblings, he had the task of breaking through social barriers and the adverse impact of poverty and isolation of his Mexican Catholic family. His educational experience was colored by cultural apartheid of the day. Destiny catapulted him into the fight for human rights and social justice.
By the 1970’s he joined Noel Day and Polaris Research & Development, Inc., a multicultural and multidisciplinary think tank. Polaris Research and Development is a full-service social interest consulting firm located in San Francisco and engaged in behavioral science research, program design development and evaluation, training and technical assistance, and social marketing and media advocacy to public and private sector policymakers and managers at the local, regional, statewide and national levels. He eventually became one of four principal partners in the firm. This team of four was made up of four individual partners who identify as European American, African-American, Asian American and Latino/Hispanic (himself).
This is Christoph at 6 years of age in first grade at
Divine Savior Catholic School in East Los Angeles.
By the 1980s he earned an international reputation as an expert in the field of cross-cultural communication and interfaith dialogue for People living with HIV disease, their families and significant others. As a committed Roman Catholic, he was active in his parish of Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church in hospital ministry and AIDS ministry in the early days of the pandemic. He went on to become the Assistant Director of Shanti Project, the first AIDS care provider in the nation. He organized the first AIDS interfaith conference at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. As a member of the Papal Task Force in 1987, he brought 100 persons living with HIV disease to Mission Dolores to be blessed by the late Saint Pope John Paul II. As an AIDS pioneer he helped to mobilize an international response while working tirelessly at the bedside of people at every stage of HIV disease. He helped to lead the efforts to open Coming Home Hospice and support the efforts of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta to establish her Gift of Love Hospice in the City of Saint Francis.
By the 1990’s he became the principal architect of the very first Cultural Issues Track for any AIDS conference to date, which premiered at the Seventh National AIDS Update Conference in San Francisco in 1995. His gift of inspirational speech was in tremendous demand during this last decade of the second millennium. He often speaks of a humanitarian Call to Oneness in the face of life threatening disease and the infused insights of Our Lord Jesus Christ in his life. His teachers have been people with life threatening disease, the outcasts of society and the founder of his faith. As a trainer of trainers he teaches cultural and interfaith diversity. His teaching environments have included local, statewide, national and international venues.
By they year 2000 he founded The Diversity Institute as a vehicle to contribute his life experience as a practitioner in building core capabilities to help communities and professionals at all levels navigate pluralism among diverse cultures in our multicultural nation. His teaching imparts information, knowledge and wisdom to empower people and professionals to become global citizens. He teaches us that “The Paradox of Sameness and Difference: We are Universally Unique…and Uniquely Universal in our Diversity.” Unpacking that reality becomes an adventure of both the intellect and the heart in his public speaking, teaching and mentoring of the new generations. He understands that we are in the Age of the Globalization of Culture where cultural identities and diverse cultures must be bridged by universal advocates for the common good for our community of communities.
Today, twenty years into the 21st century he remains the consummate thinker and practitioner in the multidisciplinary world of research, prevention and treatment of People living with life threatening illnesses and vulnerable communities. Now in the last trimester of life he has particular joy and excitement to bring his time, talent and treasure to Catholic institutions and parish communities.
Deacon Sandoval's eclectic professional experience in organizational development has a wide bandwidth as a hands on administrator, program manager and frontline practitioner.
He has brought his gifts to People with Life Threatening Illnesses at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco for the last 15 years. He is the founder and facilitator of the spiritual care support group widely known as the “Strength for the Journey “ Ministry. He also facilitates the "Through Darkness into New Light" Grief and Consolation Spiritual Care Support group at the Cathedral. Now into his seventies he is still in demand by both the private and public sectors across all disciplines to help team build their institutional vision, mission, goals, objectives, and activities as a renowned Mentor and teacher.