Assistant Director & Chief Information Officer, Los Angeles County's Department of Public Social Services
Since March of 2006, Michael J. Sylvester has served as an Assistant Director for Los Angeles County's Department of Public Social Services (DPSS). For the first 12 years, he presided over the Bureau of Contract and Technical Services, with a workforce of approximately 400+ personnel and responsibility for more than 150 vendor staff, where he was responsible for the Department's automation/technology strategy, application development and infrastructure and technical support. He was also responsible for providing direct management oversight for the implementation and maintenance of one of the nation's largest public benefits eligibility and issuance systems, called LRS. Under his leadership, the Department achieved numerous awards at the local, State and national levels for innovation and technology. During his tenure, he has helped transform the Department into a forward looking, agile and technologically capable organization. Effective February of 2018, Mr. Sylvester assumed the Assistant Director responsibilities over the Bureau of Special Operations, consisting of a very diverse workforce of approximately 1,900+ personnel. This bureau is responsible for the following programs/operations: the In-Home Supportive Services program, the Communications and Project Management Office, Welfare Fraud Prevention and Investigations, Appeals and State Hearings, Civil Rights, Management and Research Services, Management Information & Evaluation, Toy Loan and Volunteer Services, as well as Property Management and Space Planning. In addition, he continues to remain closely involved in establishing information technology strategies and promoting innovation within the Department, as well as establishing and cultivating key collaborations with other organizations at the Federal, State and local level on behalf of the Department. This is evidenced by his recent leadership and guidance (in both the technical and business areas) over the successful implementation of a new and innovative Department Web portal that has vastly improved the user experience and level of customer engagement through; a user-centric, results-oriented and streamlined layout, an easy-to-navigate topology, a mobile device native and ADA compliant design, and an adaptable framework that incorporates usage data and advanced analytics to help inform the Department of what changes should be made to the site based upon how the public is accessing or not accessing certain areas.