Janeen L. Birckhead

Janeen L. Birckhead is a U.S. military officer serving as the adjutant general of Maryland since April 2023. She is a major general of the Maryland Army National Guard. She was previously a senior advisor in the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration and the assistant adjutant general from June 2018 to April 2023.

Career Birckhead was born to Fannie Mae (née Ward) and Lewis Birckhead. Her mother, a local politician, was the first African American elected to a countywide office in Worcester County, Maryland and the first to serve as a mayor on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Birckhead was raised in Snow Hill, Maryland where she attended Snow Hill Elementary, Middle, and High School. She was on the basketball cheerleading squad at her high school and was a member of its 4-H club. She earned a M.A. in management from the University of Maryland University College and a M.S.S. in strategic studies at the United States Army War College. She served as the assistant adjutant general from June 2018 to April 2023. and was selected by the D.C. National Guard to be the Task Force Capitol Grounds Commander for the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. She was also a senior advisor in the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration in the within the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In April 2023, Birckhead was promoted to major general and named by governor Wes Moore as the 31st adjutant general of Maryland.