Angelena resides in Detroit Michigan with her dad and her cat. She is a behavior analyst, caregiver to her dad, pageant queen, world traveler, care advocate, and more. Angelena is passionate about uplifting others in her community from all walks of life, from children to elders, through health and illness, and education and caregiving. Her community involvement includes volunteering with AARP, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, Lung Force, American Heart Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Make-A-Wish Michigan, and more.
As a caregiver, Angelena strives to help other caregivers along their journey. Through lived experience and not having proper support and education on needed resources, she noticed the need for various resources in family care and became an advocate and avid supporter of improving the care infrastructure. Angelena has served as a family caregiving fellow with Caring Across Generations, where she assisted family caregivers with voter registration and accessing needed resources during the pandemic, as well as lobbying with state leaders to pass important care bills and acts that would vastly improve the lives of caregivers and their loved ones. Her work continues as a military caregiver fellow with The Elizabeth Dole Foundation Hidden Heroes Community where she has lead panel discussions on caregiver mental health and caring for aging veterans, engaged in Capitol Hill meetings with elected officials, lobbied for the passage of home-based community care acts, hosted caregiving resource events and co-facilitated caregiver mental wellness workshops.
Angelena is the recipient of the 2021 Caregiving.com Young Adult Caregiver Visionary Award, and is a 2023 Caregiving Visionary Award nominee for Military Caregiving Advocate of the Year. In recognition of her excellence as a role-model, community advocate, and leader in the City of Detroit, Angelena has received The Spirit of Detroit Award from Mayor-Elect Mary Sheffield, and community ambassador honors from Wayne County Commissioner Monique Baker McCormick and Senator Mary Cavanagh.
Over the years, Angelena has been featured across multiple media platforms sharing her story and empowering the caregiving community. Angelena started her Crown The Caregiver initiative as a way to recognize and empower family caregivers. She hopes to one day turn it into a non-profit that assists caregivers with their mental health and respite care needs.
As Ms. Michigan Captivating 2026, she will compete for the national title of Ms. Captivating at Captivating Pageants in August 2026.
