How Angela Cabellon hopes to move Howard County forward as the pandemic wanes

Apr. 10—As the COVID-19 pandemic raged through Howard County, Angela Lagdameo Cabellon kept a cool head and steady hand.

She and her team sprang into action, becoming among the first Maryland counties to open drive-up testing sites. Later, Cabellon's team deployed mobile vaccination vans, using data to direct them to impoverished neighborhoods lacking public transportation. After the federal government authorized COVID-19 relief funds, Cabellon and her staff merged different revenue streams, tailoring aid to the needs of specific communities.

In December, Cabellon, 43, of North Laurel was appointed County Executive Calvin Ball's chief of staff. That was 10 months after U.S. President Joe Biden praised Howard County's handling of the pandemic.

During a Feb. 15, 2022 speech to the National Association of Counties, Biden urged local leaders to be creative in disbursing federal aid. "Put these funds to work to keep people on the job," Biden said, "providing retention bonuses for teachers and bus drivers like Howard County, Maryland, did."

Cabellon credits her family ― particularly her sister Christina and late brother Rob — with teaching her valuable and occasionally heartbreaking lessons that set her on a public service career.

Her parents are Filipino immigrants who settled in Bowie. The youngest of five children, Cabellon had a political awakening at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her sister Christina Lagdameo, a senior, was campaigning to establish an Asian American Studies program, and knew she would graduate before the fight was finished.

"She told me, 'After I graduate, you need to take up the baton,'" Cabellon recalled. She immersed herself in Asian American history, learning the first Filipino immigrants settled in the U.S. in the 1600s and that during World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps.

"These eye-opening facts unlocked a passion in me to contribute to the community," she said.

The university established its Asian American studies program in 2000, the first in the Baltimore-Washington area, according to Cabellon.

But a big success was accompanied by devastating tragedy. During Cabellon's senior year, her brother Rob Lagdameo, a recent Peace Corps volunteer who was engaged to be married, committed suicide.

"My family didn't have a hint that anything was wrong," Cabellon said. "It ripped me apart."

Cabellon's family rallied around her while dealing with their own grief.

"They told me, 'Just because his life has ended doesn't mean that yours does,'" she said. "What his death did was to unlock a deep, deep empathy in me. I hadn't realized the amount of PTSD [post-traumatic stress syndrome] existing in society."

Though that support helped — a lot ― Cabellon continued to struggle. After graduation, she taught a special education class in San Jose, California, for two years as part of Teach for America.

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"They were the most rambunctious students," Cabellon said, "but they were amazing. They inspired me every day."

It was in California that Cabellon finally surrendered to her grief.

"My faith became real," she said. "I felt the love of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit holding me up. That was the miracle of my life."

Graduate school followed. Cabellon received a master's degree in public policy in 2008 from Harvard University, where she met (and was later recruited by) then-Gov. Martin O'Malley. Cabellon rose rapidly; when she left the governor's office in 2015, she was assistant secretary in the Department of Human Services.

That was followed by a three-year stint in Montgomery County, where Cabellon managed $38 million in social service programs. She joined Ball's office in 2018 as Howard County's first chief innovation officer.

Now, she's working on moving the county forward post-pandemic, from devising apprenticeship programs aimed at building the work force to battling inflation.

"We're faced with unprecedented challenges," she said. "My job is ensuring Howard County continues to be at the forefront of places people want to live and work. It's nice to know we're all in this together."