Dr. Golightly’s entire professional career focused on programs and agencies that provided services to low-income children and families. He retired in February 2020 as Director of the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department (CSSD), where he had responsibility for over 1600 employees and 300,000 child support cases worldwide. CSSD is the largest local child support program in the nation. He served as director for 12 years. Before directing the child support department, he was interim director of the County’s Department of Public Social Services, the local welfare agency.
Before working in Los Angeles County, Dr. Golightly was the Regional Administrator (SES Career) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, based in Atlanta, Georgia. There he was the senior federal official for all poverty programs in the eight southeastern states. He also spent 12 years as Vice President for Human Service programs at the National Alliance of Business in Washington, DC. Dr. Golightly began his career as director of a federally funded job training program in Chautauqua County, New York.
He has a BS degree in business management, an MPA from California State University Dominguez Hills, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Walden University. He is known nationally and internationally for his work in the area of applying predictive analytics in the social services arena. He is the recipient of the California Child Support Director’s Association Truly B. Knox award for leadership in the California child support community, the Charles Dykstra Excellence in Government award from the American Society for Public Administration, and the Los Angeles County Productivity and Quality Commission’s Excellence in Leadership award.
Dr. Golightly has taught in the MPA programs at California State University, Dominguez Hills for 12 years, and at California State University, Northridge for eight years. He and his husband, Douglas Warde, live in Beverly Hills with their two dogs, Sterling and Poppy, and their cat-in-charge, Mavro. Steven has three children and five grandchildren. His son, Benjamin, is a Captain in the US Coast Guard, stationed currently in Kodiak, Alaska, and is the Commanding Officer of the USS Alex Hailey.