A Registered Nurse became a REALTOR in 2005. Two decades later, she’s about to run the largest local REALTOR association in the country. That’s not a career change, that’s a second act built in public.
Orange County REALTORS® elected Joyce Endo as its 2026 President-Elect, per the association’s announcement, alongside Eileen Oldroyd as 2026 Treasurer.
Know the path behind the title. Endo built a career as a Registered Nurse in Southern California before becoming a REALTOR® in 2005, and today she works with HomeLinq in Newport Beach, specializing in Orange County’s Beach Cities: Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, Costa Mesa, and Fountain Valley. She also serves as a Director on the boards of both Orange County REALTORS® and the California Association of REALTORS®, leadership built through years of association work, not a single election cycle.
This is a lighter-weight move than a corporate C-suite appointment, association politics rather than a P&L, but it carries real weight in the region. Whoever leads OC’s largest REALTOR association shapes the advocacy agenda, from local housing policy to transaction rules, for one of the most competitive and expensive residential markets in the SoCal economy. That kind of influence over an entire industry’s working conditions deserves the same attention we give corporate leadership moves in our hiring trends coverage.
The nurse-to-REALTOR® pivot is also a career story worth sitting with. Both professions run on trust built under pressure, walking strangers through the biggest, scariest moments of their lives, whether that’s a diagnosis or the largest purchase they’ll ever make. Endo spent a career in one high-trust field before building a second one, then spent two decades climbing the association ladder inside it. That’s the definition of a career built on reputation, not shortcuts.
For real estate professionals in Orange County watching this: association leadership is a long game, and it rewards the people who show up to the board meetings nobody else wants to attend. If you’re building toward a leadership seat like this one, our Get Placed desk talks to real estate leaders about exactly that kind of positioning.
To Joyce Endo: congratulations. Thousands of OC real estate professionals now have you fighting for them at the table, and that’s a mandate earned one board meeting at a time.
What to watch next: Endo’s advocacy priorities as she moves toward the presidency in 2027, how OC REALTORS® positions itself on regional housing policy, and whether her healthcare-to-real-estate career path becomes a talking point for the association’s own member recruiting. We’ll keep tracking real estate leadership across the region on the People Moves Tracker.
Know a leader who deserves this spotlight?
This is what we do at Recruiter Hustle: we don’t just report the move, we honor the person behind it. If you, your company, or someone you admire just stepped into a new chapter, we want to tell that story right.
→ Submit a People Move • or reach out to Cathy Trinh directly, and let’s put your name in the light.
HEART. HUMAN. HUSTLE.
Sources & verification
Election: Orange County REALTORS® announcement, July 9, 2026 · Background: ocrealtors.org and agent profile listings
Cathy Trinh is the founder of Recruiter Hustle and has worked in executive search since 1998, advising companies and leaders across finance, accounting, operations, manufacturing, logistics, real estate, technology and professional services. Through Recruiter Hustle, she combines executive search, talent intelligence and market media to help companies and people make better decisions about work and leadership. HEART. HUMAN. HUSTLE.