Cedric Sims, network branch chief of the information resources management division of the U.S. Secret Service (Washington, DC), joined the agency as a field office IT administrator in 2001. It was just a month after 9/11.
The hiring process "had been in progress for a long time," he says, a common lag because of security clearances required. In light of 9/11, he and his wife discussed the future very seriously when the approval came through. He decided to go ahead with the commitment.
"When the U.S. Secret Service comes knocking and says, 'We want you on our team,' it's a pretty strong call," he says.
Two significant missions
The Secret Service has two significant missions: protecting prominent government officials and their families, and investigating crimes against the financial system. Financial crimes these days are highly cyber-oriented, including access device fraud, financial institution fraud, identity theft, computer fraud and computer-based attacks on our nation's financial, banking and telecom infrastructure.
The Secret Service employs more than 6,000 people as special agents, uniformed officers and technical, professional and administrative support personnel. Agents are assigned to 125 offices in cities throughout the U.S. and some foreign countries.
Enterprise concerns and more
As branch chief, Sims represents the Secret Service in the consolidated enterprise integration and architecture project. The ongoing project is intended to create a single network and a single communications structure for Homeland Security by the end of this year.
When completed, the integration will include policy on implementation and management of infrastructure for all Homeland Security agencies, and will drive future procurement decisions.
Of course Sims has plenty to think about besides that. In this election year he has had to juggle day-to-day responsibilities with planning for the conventions and other events that require Secret Service protection.
Starting in the field
When he was recruited for the Secret Service, Sims was posted in Texas to start, since he and his veterinarian wife were still finishing their education at Texas A&M University. So Sims began in the Houston, TX field office, commuting from his home nearly a hundred miles away. Part of his beat was the George H.W. Bush Library on the A&M campus, and he worked with other Secret Service agents on everything from presidential protection to criminal investigations.
He also did IT-related work, installing electronic equipment and configuring it for field ops and support.
"That's what's wonderful about the field," he says. "Everybody does everything, from serious raids to helping people get their computers working back at the office."
Specialist Sims goes to Washington
Sims declined the invitation to become a special agent. When his wife graduated in 2002 they moved on to Washington, DC.
The information resources management division of the Secret Service has four subdivisions. The intention was that Sims would rotate through all four.
IT infrastructure is the largest. Next comes communications; then planning and programs, the policy side of IT; and finally information assurance, dealing with new-age issues like viruses and firewall security.
IT infrastructure needed him first. He took on responsibility for representing the agency in the huge enterprise integration project. "I feel it was one of the most critical junctures we have ever faced in IT," he says. "It was an opportunity to shine and things went well."
So well that, after two temporary appointments, Sims became the permanent branch chief on June 29, 2003.
Home schooling
Sims' parents were financially limited but had big visions for their children. When the local school couldn't provide the college prep material they wanted for their kids, they taught them at home.
Sims qualified for a GED in 1989 when he was fifteen, and entered Texas A&M. His sisters, he notes, followed him at the ages of fourteen and thirteen. "Education was definitely at the forefront for my parents," he says.
Sims started in ME with the idea of becoming an aerospace engineer. But he was soon attracted to CS. "The university was a great environment for me to cut my teeth on this whole computing infrastructure," he says.
To satisfy his desire to connect with people, he doubled up in journalism, and received a dual degree in CS and journalism in 1994.
He moved on to the direct entry PhD program, which bypasses the MS requirement. He completed all the coursework for a doctorate in CS, but his dissertation is, so far, still a thing of the future.
Advancing at TTI
Sims worked all through school. After he completed his BS he became a director of integration at the on-campus Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). He was responsible for engineering the integration of vehicle components and developing control information for public safety peripherals.
Sadler Bridges, a senior exec at TTI, became an important mentor in Sims' life, and the work at TTI brought him to the attention of the Secret Service. A project in advanced law enforcement and response technology (ALERT) involved designing computer systems for police cars. Two of the cars TTI fitted up were for the Secret Service.
At the simulation center
After joining the Secret Service, Sims had to wait for his security clearance. During that year he worked on a military simulation project for the university. It placed him in Fort Leavenworth, KS at the Army's national simulation center.
Peripherals
Sims is eager to share the satisfaction he enjoys in his career. "At some point I'd like to recruit," he says. "I think it's important to have a passion for the organization you're recruiting for and I do have that passion."
At home, his family now includes three children. His wife has cut back her work schedule and reminds him to take time off, too.
The next step?
Sims doesn't rule out eventual work in the private sector, but for now he's dedicated to the mission of the Secret Service. "I'd be hard-pressed to find another job with the kind of connection I feel with the service," he says.
Sims hasn't confronted much racial discrimination at all in his career, and finds the Secret Service color-blind. The agency has many diverse senior officials, he notes.
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