In honor of Black History Month, which is celebrated throughout the month of February, the DA’s Office is featuring stories of employees and what inspired them to pursue a career in public service.

Meet the DA’s Chief Technology Officer, Julian Shelby, who leads the DA’s Information Technology Department, including cybersecurity. He began his County career with the DA’s Office in March 1998 and left with Child Support Enforcement when it separated from the DA’s Office to become Child Support Services. He returned in May 2024 as the Chief Information Security Officer (cybersecurity) after nearly 18 years with the County Technology Office. Read more about what inspired him to pursue a career at the DA’s Office, below.

What inspired you to pursue a career in law enforcement/ at the DA’s Office?

“I dreamed of being Q from the James Bond movies because I thought it would be awesome to invent cool gadgets. I switched from electronics to IT when I was hired by the DA’s Office, which was pure happenstance. Returning has been a blessing! Proud that my mother retried from law enforcement as a civilian as will I.”

What does African American History Month mean to you?

“African American History Month to me is a time when those of us from black African descent get to reflect on both the struggles and subsequent successes of our forefathers. I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana to a civil rights activist mother and a civil rights attorney father, who is not of African descent. Ironically, it was my father who named me Julian after the civil rights leader, Julian Bond, and my middle name Kenyatta is from Jomo Kenyatta, the first anti-colonial president of Kenya.”

Anything else you want to share?

“Yes. A piece from the great Langston Hughes: ‘O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home — For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.’