Cheryl Pasteur is unabashed about her passion for working with children.
Her commitment to younger generations has been a key part of her career trajectory, starting in college and continuing on as she serves as the state delegate for Baltimore County’s District 11A.
“I am about children,” she says. “Whatever I do, I do processing, ‘How would a child translate this and interpret this?’ Unlike people who say children are our future, I say children are our present.”
Pasteur attended the University of Maryland, College Park, on a scholarship. Originally planning to be a music teacher, she switched to education with a concentration in English.
Shortly after graduating, she started her career in education. She taught at a newly opened high school in East Baltimore, where the students were just a few younger than her. Many of her students, she notes, have remained her friends and become her contemporaries.
After a few years, she moved to Pittsburgh, to study and pursue one of her other passions: theater. Working alongside up-and-coming artists, including playwright August Wilson, Pasteur developed her theater and education skills. “It was a wonderful, wonderful time,” she says.
But Pasteur soon found her way back to Baltimore and began teaching again. However, she decided she wanted to try something different — and applied to work at the FBI. She worked as an FBI agent for five years in New Jersey and Florida, among colleagues whom she spoke fondly of, but missed being in a classroom. She had been teaching for the bureau, but it wasn’t the same.
“It just hit me again that I wanted to teach again,” she recalls.
This realization led her back to Baltimore County schools in 1988, which is where she worked until her retirement in 2012. Throughout her tenure, she was an English teacher, department chair, assistant principal and eventually principal of Randallstown High School.
But the quietness of retired life didn’t quite suit Pasteur. In 2018, she was elected to the Baltimore County School Board. “That was a really interesting time and attitude-shaping time for me,” she says.
In 2022, she decided to take another step further into local politics. She ran for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, to represent District 11A, and won. When asked what made her decide to run for office, she was quick to answer.
“It’s how I was raised,” she says. “I was raised to believe you do; you don’t just talk. It never occurred to me that there were other options other than to do, and to be a servant.”
Pasteur was sworn in January of 2023. As her first year in office draws to a close, she says she has enjoyed the experience so far.
“I am proud of the fact that I am able to have a voice that is unfettered about worrying about my career,” she says. “I don’t have to worry about whether people like me, because I don’t care. It’s all about serving. It’s not about how many bills I can write, though I have to admit my first year was a really good year. It is truly about the fact that I have been able to navigate and work with some great people.”
And throughout her political work, she always keeps the younger generations in mind.
“As a teacher and as an administrator, it was always important to blend what I believe about children and care with what I believe about developing communities and strengthening communities,” Pasteur says. “I’m hopeful I can make a meaningful difference for the children, not just in Baltimore County but for the state of Maryland.”
