•PROFESSIONAL  ACHIEVEMENT I•

B.S., U.S. Coast Guard Academy
M.SC., Strategic Intelligence, National Intelligence University

From the guarding the coasts of our nation to protecting the boundaries of cyber space, Commander Angelina Hidalgo has spent the past 19 years of her active duty U.S. Coast Guard military career constantly breaking through barriers and charting new territory.

As Chief of the Intelligence Department at Coast Guard Cyber Command in Washington D.C., Commander Hidalgo leads operational and tactical level intelligence activities enabling Coast Guard cyberspace operations to defend the Coast Guard Network and protect the Marine Transportation System, She is described by her peers as an outstanding military officer, an energetic leader, a proactive mentor, and an exceptional role model.

Commander Hidalgo has been attracting recognition since the very inception of her career, when she was featured in a New York Times article which highlighted Angie’s leadership role as a female student at the Coast Guard Academy and quoted her on the gender support that she received there.

Before long, Commander Hidalgo had become only the second Hispanic woman in U.S.C.G. history to command a Coast Guard Patrol Boat just a few years after graduating the academy. Her mastery of that post led to being selected for graduate school in intelligence where she was subsequently hand-picked to represent the U.S. Coast Guard at the newly-launched National Counterterrorism Center. Her performance led to a promotion to Protocol Officer for the entire Service, working directly for the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. 

In the next phase of Commander Hidalgo’s journey, she returned to Coast Guard operations in Los Angeles, providing critical leadership and operational expertise to the law enforcement, search-and-rescue, and pollution response missions. 

Her time in the intelligence arena beckoned her to her next assignment at the Coast Guard’s intelligence staff in Boston where she readily employed state of the art technology to directly support Coast Guard operations at sea.   

Soon she was chosen to represent the U.S.C.G. at the National Security Agency Fellowship in Maryland, where Commander Hidalgo seized the opportunity to become a pioneer for the Coast Guard’s nascent cybersecurity efforts.  The scope of her responsibility and impact of her work were such that the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard promoted her to an Operations Ashore commander.  

In her current assignment, Commander Hidalgo is recognized as a pioneer in U.S. Coast Guard cybersecurity. She was recognized for her achievements by her selection to join the U.S. Coast Guard’s cohort this Fall with the prestigious MIT Seminar XXI. Among the other commendations she has received is a National Latina Symposium Distinguished Service Award for her mentoring and outreach to high school students. 

Commander Hidalgo is a current member of the CGA Alumni Board of Directors and a founding member of the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Initiative.