Appointed to the position by governor Ruth Ann Minner from May 2008 until 2015,[1][2] she was the first person of color to hold the title.
[3] Balingit is the author of the book Words For House Story, a poetry collection featured in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, a Washington D.C.–based Literary Journal.
[4] She also wrote two award-winning chapbooks, Forage and Your Heart and How It Works, which explore female identity and Philippine ancestry.
More of her published work can be found in anthologies such as No Place Like Here: Southern Delaware Poetry and Prose and On the Mason Dixon Line: Contemporary Delaware Writers.
[5] Balingit was born in Columbus, Ohio, to a German American mother and a Filipino immigrant father as the third eldest of twelve children.