Inside the Department of Technology

Payal Desai:

I am Payal Desai, and I'm a project manager here at Department of technology. I like the role because I get to work with a variety of different projects --- the people I work with --- you know the space, networking, Telecom, Wi-Fi, data center work--- that interests me a lot --- and the service that you're providing to the

different departments. 

I would say the most significant barrier, especially early on in my career, was gaining the trust and the credibility in the workspace. I feel I'm lucky and blessed to have been given the opportunity to work in this space. I feel if you have a good Mentor and a good support group, then that will help you in a journey no matter where you go.

In my family, I'm the first lady who got the opportunity to go to graduate school, and I feel that was that was a major breakthrough and a blessing for me. Especially [since] I come from a family of doctors and engineers, so being the first lady to be able to go to graduate school meant a lot. 

My mother, she's the biggest source of my inspiration and strength. She's always encouraged me to go to school, study hard, and that I can do it no matter what and --- and be there pp ---- she's always been there for me. 

I would say to my younger self: that time is precious and be aware of how you're spending it --- just early on in life figuring out what your priorities are --- you know managing your time accordingly --- investing your time in the things that matter to you. Because that grows right, and you want to --- when you're young you have time on your side --- so you want to make the right choices you want to understand what you want out of life ... prioritize it accordingly, and then go from there. 

Love what you do and the rest will follow.

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Producer/Director: Kaleena Mendoza

Executive Producer: Jack Chin

Camera/Editor: James Kawana

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An SFGovTV Orginal Program

SFGovTV

Copyright 2023, The City and County of San Francisco

Maria Peña, Producer & Media Programming Specialist SFGovTV:

My name is Maria Peña. I'm a producer and media programming specialist for SFGovTV in the Department of Technology for the City and County of San Francisco.

When I was really little, my dad always had like a special or new electronic gadget, and I remember vividly — one summer he bought this huge square box — that was an AM/FM radio, and it actually had a TV integrated into it, and I remember like watching some videos that really impacted me. I'm like I want to do that. 

And so once I graduated high school, I just knew that I wanted my career to be in a creative realm. I ended up working in television— for now about 30 years— and more important to me is— my whole time in media— it's really focused around informing my community, particularly the Latino Community. 

I'm originally from Mexico; my parents emigrated here when we were very little, and so I always saw the struggles within the immigrant community. It's just my little grain of salt in contributing to informing viewers and being a resource for people to get information and be empowered with that. 

One of the things that I noticed versus my male counterparts is that sometimes I really felt I wasn't taken seriously because I was a woman. And as a Latina, it's even more so I feel— and I'm talking from my personal experience— we have to prove ourselves even more, but I've also had people along the way in my in my career that have really mentored me— that have taken me under their wing. 

I thought really closely what female has inspired me in my life. My mother said like, don't let anyone put you down, and then always feel proud of who you are. She would emphasize to me, because I am a woman, I need to learn to stand up for myself and to really assert myself and do whatever I needed to do to be successful. 

If I could go back in time and have a sit-down conversation with my younger self, I would tell her to trust yourself— trust your gut— don't second guess yourself— allow yourself to make mistakes— and don't try to always have the perfect

situation. You need to take risks because, if you

don't get out of your comfort zone, you won't know what else is out there. And opportunities come up that you never imagined that were gonna happen.

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PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/CAMERA: KALEENA MENDOZA

CAMERA: ANSON HO, JAMES KAWANA

EDITOR/CAMERA: JENNIFER LOW

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: JACK CHIN

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Maria Peña:

Perfect!

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An SFGovTV Orginal Program

SFGovTV

Copyright 2023, The City and County of San Francisco

Arlene Licudine:

I work in technology to make a difference in the City and County of San Francisco. I am proud because whatever you see on the street, DT has got something to do with it. 

Jolie Gines, Principal Administrative Analyst:

I procure all equipment software commodities or other

types of requirements for the technology and service support training and such to support the team for the Department

of Technology, as well as the city. 

Nina D'Amato, Chief of Staff:

I think my favorite aspect that technology is the complexity working with teams to ensure we can break apart complex

problems, ensuring that we can modernize technology efforts, and bring the city into the 21st century when it comes to supporting our client departments who have the public facing mission — ensuring residents and visitors have a good

experience in and around services. 

Jennifer Low, Media Production Specialist:

My favorite aspect of technology is being able to use it for storytelling. We help to foster community through our

storytelling by informing people about initiatives that city departments might have that may benefit someone that they

didn't know would benefit them. We are able to showcase different neighborhoods, different neighborhood, nonprofits

artists, so it's not just politics and government, but it's also the city, it's also the community. 

Arlene Licudine, Principal Business Analyst:

I deal with doing the websites for City County of San

Francisco. It's either that I put my hands in it, like doing the programming or a little bit of it, or doing a project lead for some of the projects around here. I am the woman behind whatever Pepper is talking about— I program it. The the chat pod opens up opportunities for women to be part of this booming technology. We can also go in there and help actually create a natural language query that is more conversational than another a robot. I'm proud to be in Department of Technology because these people here are

quite smart. 

Nina D'Amato:

The one effort that we're particularly excited about is ways that we get the most dedicated, the brightest, the most motivated people to come join the San Francisco Department of Technology. That is definitely at the forefront of everything we do. It's about people and, while the technology is always fascinating and cool, it's really about the people that deliver that technology.