Guillen Imprint News profile

Citation

Holden Slattery. “Social Worker, and Part-Time Hacker, Builds Apps for Child Welfare.” The Imprint, July 21, 2015. https://imprintnews.org/news-2/social-worker-turned-hacker-builds-apps-for-child-welfare/11425. Read 2026-10-26.

A 2015 news profile of Ruby Guillen, then a Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) social worker since 1995. She built child-welfare apps at Hack for LA hackathons.
She criticizes the county’s risk tool as not “on the level with today’s technology”, and says: “I’m more for people-centered technology”.

The Imprint is “an independent, nonprofit daily news publication” on child welfare. The article is 11 years old.

“Since she started this job in 1995, Guillen has assessed the safety of 6,000 children in their homes, she estimates.” (paragraph 3)
She “fell in love with technology when she joined the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s”, and got a degree in computer information systems in 2010. (paragraph 7)
“This year Guillen led a team of fellow techies to victory in two hackathons hosted by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.” The apps were for child sex trafficking, bullying, foster care placement and risk assessment. (paragraphs 8 to 10)
“None of these applications are in use yet.” She said: “We’re up against big corporations. It’s very difficult for anyone unless you’re given the green light to participate,” (paragraphs 11 and 12)
On the Structured Decision Making (SDM) tool: “The tool itself is not on the level with today’s technology,” (section “Ruby’s Assessment”)
“I’m more for people-centered technology,” Guillen said. “Let’s get the people what they need. If you want to determine risk you’re community’s going to tell you.” (section “Ruby’s Assessment”)

A news profile based on an interview. Quotes are hers. The numbers are her own estimates.

Source file: wiki/sources/Guillen Imprint News profile.md, updated 2026-10-26.