Christopher Cabaldon

In 2019, Cabaldon was appointed to the faculty of California State University, Sacramento as the Hazel Cramer Endowed Chair and Professor of Public Policy and Administration.

In 2015, President Obama appointed Cabaldon to the National Advisory Board for America's College Promise.

Cabaldon is Chair of the Jobs, Education & the Workforce Committee at the United States Conference of Mayors, where he was elected to the board in June 2011. In June 2007 Cabaldon authored a resolution for the US Conference of Mayors that supported the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act, that was passed unanimously at the annual conference. In June 2009 he pushed through the most sweeping gay civil rights resolution of any national elected officials organization, US Conference of Mayors Resolution No. 46, 2008 winning support for marriage equality, hate crimes, employment nondiscrimination, and repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. A member of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, he and the Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore and Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio published a column, Gay marriage a question of justice, in USA Today in January 2013. In 2019, Cabaldon was named chair of the LGBTQ Mayors Alliance. He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, and a signer of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Cabaldon is Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.

He was a candidate for the 8th district seat in the California State Assembly in 2008. Although he had a substantial advantage in fundraising, he lost the primary by three percentage points to Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada.

The Logo network featured Cabaldon in a 2006 episode of the series Coming Out Stories, when he came out publicly in his annual State of the City address.

Cabaldon earned his BS in Environmental Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was student body vice president. He earned a Masters in Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento in its founding class, where he later taught as an adjunct faculty member, and in 2002, received the institution's "Distinguished Service Award."

Cabaldon was selected mayor of West Sacramento by fellow council members in November 1998, after first being elected to the City Council in 1996. The council chose him for three more one year terms as mayor. In 2004, he won West Sacramento's first direct mayoral election. He was re-elected mayor in 2006, 2008, and 2010, was unopposed in the November 2012 general election, reelected with 84.3% of the vote in the 2014 general election, unopposed in the 2016 general election, and re-elected in 2018.

From 1997 to 2003, Cabaldon was vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges System, with executive responsibility for policy, planning, strategy, research, information systems and data, governmental relations, public affairs, and other initiatives for the system of 110 colleges. He then took over as chief executive officer of EdVoice, a nonprofit education advocacy organization. He later served as president of the Linked Learning Alliance, program officer for the California Education Policy Fund, and co-director of the California Legislative Staff Education Institute.

Christopher L. Cabaldon (born November 12, 1965) is a Filipino-American politician from California who serves as mayor of West Sacramento. He is the longest-serving mayor in the city's history. He also represents the State of California on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education as an appointee of California Governor Jerry Brown. He is a member of the Democratic Party, Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors, and Chair of U.S. Conference of Mayors' Jobs, Education, and Workforce Committee. He is openly gay.