Prior to working full-time in her consultancy, Sylvia dedicated 26 years of her life to serving children, adults, and families through her work at the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) and MAXIMUS, Inc., a health and human services consulting firm.

Her career included nearly 20 years in the administration of public policy, operations, automation, quality assurance, compliance, budget, and contracts. She spent 14 of these years in middle and senior management.

Sylvia served as the Assistant Deputy Director for HHSA, Strategic Planning & Operational Support Division, Self-Sufficiency Programs. In this role, she had oversight of:

• County-wide strategic planning, policy and program development, audit compliance, and performance management for HHSA’s public assistance and anti-poverty programs.
• County-wide strategic planning, policy and program development, audit compliance, performance management, and operations for HHSA’s centralized public assistance call center and the San Diego region’s community action agency.
• The programs under her oversight served about half a million county residents and provided nearly $200 million in benefits annually.

As a Human Services Operations Manager and a Health and Human Services Administrator, she managed operations for several Family Resource Centers (public assistance offices) and the county’s centralized call center. She managed workforces ranging from about 80 to 300 employees in collaboration with highly engaged leadership teams. She also managed county-wide policy, operations, automation, and the $52-millon budget for the Child Care Program, which was staffed by about 100 employees throughout the county.

Throughout her career, Sylvia was privileged to serve many people and to lead the development and implementation of successful employee engagement and performance improvement efforts and initiatives. She also served on steering committees leading major transitions.

Sylvia started her health and human services career as a front-line eligibility worker and workforce development social worker and experienced first-hand the impact of various leadership styles. As a leader, she also experienced challenges and growing pains. These experiences coupled with her love for people sparked Sylvia’s passion for developing strong managers and leaders.