[2] During her life, her work elevated the topic of the history of Filipino Americans, in Central California in particular.

[6][8][9][10] Mabalon's maternal grandmother, Concepcion Moreno Bohulano, was the first school teacher of Filipina descent in the United States.

[9][11] Mabalon was also the niece of Fred and Dorothy Cordova;[12] who were involved in the founding of the Filipino American National Historical Society.

[4] Mabalon's master's thesis was titled "Filipina Pioneers: The Pinay in Stockton, California, 1929–1946", and was written at UCLA in 1997.

[9] In 2004, Mabalon became a faculty member at San Francisco State University;[1][4] she was an associate professor of history.

[20] In 2015, Mabalon was interviewed about the November 2015 Paris attacks by Voice of America, as she and her husband were visiting the area at the time.

[22] In 2018, Mabalon visited the Delano campus of Bakersfield College, which is in the area where the Delano grape strike began, for an event about archiving; at the event she spoke to encourage Filipino Americans to preserve their family histories, with the goal of expanding historical narratives.

[3][29] Mabalon's work of documenting the history of Filipino Americans continued at the Little Manila Center that she had co-founded even after her death .