Celebrating International Women's Day, CA DCSS Recognizes its Female Executives

Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the United States economy, they hold less than 25 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Despite the huge gap in women-held positions in STEM fields, at the California Department of Child Support Services (CA DCSS) it is Sumi Smith that serves as its Assistant Chief Information Officer.

Sumi earned her Bachelor’s degree in civil environmental engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and began her career as a civil engineer working on “superfund sites” across the United States. Superfund sites are polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. The sites Sumi worked on include Department of Defense sites, some of which had nerve gas testing conducted on its grounds.

She arrived in Sacramento to work on clean up at McClellan Air Force Base before modifying her approach to engineering and got into information technology (IT) as a Project Manager. She moved on to a position working at Cable Data (now Amdocs) which developed systems that provided billing services to cable telephone/television companies. From there she moved to a private company that built network management systems and then became an IT consultant for the State for eight years, assisting departments such as CalPERS, Department of Education and Department of Justice. She then joined the state as a full-time employee at the Department of Finance and then moved to California Department of Transportation as an Assistant CIO and Acting CIO before arriving at CA DCSS almost one year ago.

Change and challenge is something Sumi is very familiar with as she grew up moving all over the world, never really staying in one place for more than a few years. She’s lived all over the United States, Saudi Arabia, India and more. She’s been in California since college, the longest she’s lived anywhere.

All of that worldly education has given Sumi a unique perspective on International Women’s Day.

“I think of the impact that women have all over the world, women we will never hear about who are making impacts in their local communities,” Sumi said. “When I was boarding school in India there was a community of refugees that we would visit and the women there had started schools for their kids. They were literally living in the dirt and yet they were the happiest people I’ve known because they were creating their own community.” 

As an Assistant CIO, it’s Sumi’s responsibility to carry out the IT initiatives of CA DCSS. “It’s important to be really connected to the business and the program and understand what the department is hoping to achieve and connecting that with technology that advances those goals.”

“I enjoy working with the people and I really enjoy learning about the program. It’s so complicated!” Sumi said. “Being a custodial parent myself and interacting with (CA DCSS) for years before I arrived, I had no idea the complexities that the department has.”

When asked what advice she has for young women seeking executive-level careers, Sumi said, “I have two girls of my own, I teach them to always say yes to opportunities and challenges to learn new things. Never let not knowing how to do something hold you back, always raise your hand, you can figure it out later.”

Of the 22 Executive staff members at CA DCSS, 17 of them are women. Currently, CA DCSS has women who lead in technology, communication, legal, legislative, fiscal and Director’s positions.

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