Norma Zalamea is a Registered Nurse from Bulacan, Metro Manila Philippines. Along with her husband, Renato Zalamea, founded Memphis Mission of Mercy in order to provide essential surgical and medical care to various communities in the Philippines. She had extensive experience from work in neonatal and pediatric intensive care, medical-surgical and psychiatric medicine. She has been essential in the development and training of our teams prior to going overseas, as well as the functionality and leadership in the Mission Pharmacy. 

After 21 years of hard work and determination, and even with completing grueling mission work while on chemotherapy, the Memphis Mission of Mercy and Zalamea family had to say goodbye for now. The Zalamea family spent the final 5 months of life with Mama/Lola/Norma from January 2021-May 2021 until the day of her final rest on May 1, 2021. Prior to her passing we continued to have discussions about the mission, conversations about the joys of serving and our hopes and prayers for the future, both in this life and in the next. It is because of this deep faith that we will be together again, and the fundamental knowledge that we al are neighbors here to care for one another, that we continue to do this work.