Senate confirms Moore Cabinet secretaries for National Guard, service department

The Maryland Senate unanimously confirmed two of Gov. Wes Moore’s latest executive appointments Friday, days before the adjournment of the legislative session.

Senators scheduled the candidates’ confirmation hearings and floor votes in between moving landmark legislation on gun control and setting up a regulated recreational cannabis market in the waning days of the 2023 General Assembly.

All Cabinet vacancies but the secretary of higher education have been filled.

Janeen L. Birckhead, the new adjutant general, will lead the state’s Military Department, which includes the Maryland National Guard and the Maryland Defense Force.

Birckhead said she did not “take this charge lightly.”

“I pledge that I will serve with humility, dedication, integrity,” she said.

Birckhead, who has served as the state’s assistant adjutant general since 2018, has taken on high-profile posts during her decadeslong military career.

Notably, she oversaw responsibility for 3,500 guardsmen assisting local law enforcement during the week of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

During the height of the pandemic, former Gov. Larry Hogan put Birckhead in charge of the Maryland Vaccine Equity Task Force to ensure people in marginalized and rural communities could access the COVID-19 vaccine. Birckhead assumed the post in February 2021.

Moore, a former U.S. Army captain, called Birckhead “a soldier’s soldier” and praised her character.

“She has dedicated her life to serving and protecting others, and I look forward to watching her continue that work in our administration,” he said during a news conference announcing her appointment.

Before becoming assistant adjutant general in 2018, Birckhead served in command posts throughout the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area and deployed overseas to Kabul, Afghanistan.

Birckhead has two master’s degrees, one from the U.S. Army War College and the other from the University of Maryland University College. She attended Hampton University — where she participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC, program — and graduated with honors.

Paul Monteiro will head an agency as new as the Moore administration itself — the Department of Service and Civic Innovation. The freshly minted agency was created by Moore to house one of his hallmark initiatives, a public service option year for high school graduates, among other service programs.

Moore, a Democrat, made community service a focus of his campaign and his early days of governance. On his first full day in office in January, the governor issued an executive order creating the department that Monteiro will lead.

The governor searched the country for the right fit and found a Prince George’s County resident to lead the department.

Monteiro comes to state government from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he’s been director of community services. He also previously was national director of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America and served on the Prince George’s County school board.

The son of immigrants from Palau and Jamaica, Monteiro, 42, was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park, and earning a law degree from Howard University, where he later worked as a chief of staff and assistant vice president.

Monteiro ran for Prince George’s County executive in 2018, finishing fourth in the Democratic primary behind eventual winner and current County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

Monteiro said the new department will be central “to cultivating our most important resource: the people of this great state.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this story.

brenda.wintrode@thebaltimorebanner.com

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