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Christina Lagdameo is committed to the social, economic, and political empowerment of people of color, especially Asian Pacific Americans, women, and girls. From 2000 to 2007, Lagdameo worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget and examined over $45 billion in federal income support programs, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, Refugee Resettlement, and issues relating to asset poverty.
She received her master's degree in urban policy from the New School for Social Research in New York City and bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland. While attending the University of Maryland, she pressured the administration to establish the first Asian American studies (AAS) program in the D.C. metropolitan area, and she later received one of the first AAS certificates from the school.
Lagdameo was formerly the chair of the national board for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, whose mission is to build an APA women's movement among those who believe in advancing social justice and to address the concerns and increase the rights of APA women and girls.
Since 2007, Lagdameo has been traveling around the world and living in Mysore, India, where she volunteered with a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates survivors of sex trafficking. With this organization, Lagdameo coordinated various programs including the Cycle to Stop Human Trafficking, a 30-day ride to 60 villages in Karnataka, India, with 20 survivors and 10 foreign volunteers who trained survivors in activism and public speaking.
In April 2010, Lagdameo was appointed to the position of deputy director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for the Obama administration. While this puts a temporary hiatus on her world travels, Lagdameo is honored and humbled to be back in Washington and to serve the community in this new capacity.
