Dr. Steven Golightly Receives Top L.A. County Quality Award and Talks Child Support "Down Under" In Australia

By: Al Reyes, Los Angeles County DCSS

On October 24th, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recognized Dr. Steven J. Golightly, the Director of the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department (CSSD), for being the recipient of the 2017 “Chair Leadership Award” from the L.A. County Quality and Productivity Commission.

Dr. Golightly received this prestigious award at the Commission’s 31st Productivity and Quality Awards on October 18th in Los Angeles. The Chair Leadership Award is given to an L.A. County Department Head who promotes, innovation, efficiency, “outside the box” thinking, quality public services and employee productivity.

Dr. Golightly was appointed Director of the Child Support Services Department in February 2007. He oversees one of the largest locally-administered child support programs in the nation with 1,500 employees and a yearly budget of $186 million. CSSD handles nearly 300,000 cases and collects approximately $486 million in support every year for families and children.

The Commission award noted that Dr. Golightly “has transformed his department’s approach to case management, and if you’ve ever heard him speak, you know he keeps a close eye on the numbers while creating a culture that celebrates employee success.” Under Dr. Golightly’s leadership, Child Support Services earned a Silver Eagle Quality Award in 2015 for using predictive analytics on the Department’s cases to increase collections for families.

Dr. Golightly is known for seeking process improvement to find ways to improve the delivery of service to child support clients. Not long after receiving the L.A. County award, the Director was on the plane at his own expense to Melbourne, Australia to be a presenter at the 2nd International Child Support Symposium at Swinburne University on December 4-5.

The Symposium attracts an impressive list of child support academics and researchers from around the world who generate out-of-the-box ideas on how to improve the program. The event was sponsored by the Australian Government Research Council, the Australian National University, Centre for Social and Research Methods and Swinburne University of Technology.

Dr. Golightly was invited as a practitioner as Director of L.A. County CSSD and as a academic with his work in the California State University system. He is an Assistant Professor of the College of Business and Public Administration for Dominguez Hills and a Full Professor at Northridge, teaching Master of Public Administration degree course work.

“I was honored to be able to be part of this symposium with colleagues who continue to share innovative and ground-breaking ideas that change the face of child support for the better,” observed Dr. Golightly. “It was a cross-fertilization of what is going on worldwide with academic study and research on child support.”

Some of the symposium topics discussed included family housing and child support, welfare state interactions and policy, mothers and the child support experience, child support financial outcomes, child support and family time and program administration. Content was based on lessons learned from such countries as Scandanavia, the United Kingdom, Australia and Korea, which has a child support program that has only been in existence for two years. There were 14-15 papers presented in concise presentations, with time for questioning.