‘90s FAMILY : Green Genes : Kelly Sims and dad Bill share a common interest: Environmentalism. Now their dedication and efforts to save the Earth have caught the attention of the White House. It must be . . .

Neither Kelly Sims, a 1995 Occidental College graduate, nor her father, Bill, a computer data expert, started out to be environmentalists, but that’s what they’ve become. And starting next month, father and daughter will head to Washington to work practically side by side for the Clinton White House.

The family business started out being, for the most part, international relations. Numerous kin worked at the State Department and other foreign-policy listening posts. Bill served for 12 years on the Council on Foreign Relations’ Denver Committee. He also was editor of World News Digest, a scholarly journal, from 1989 to ’92.

Meanwhile, the closest Kelly’s mom got to environmentalism was in her effort to “recycle the town of Central City, Colo.,” which is how JoAnn Sims refers to the job she has in public relations on behalf of the century-old Central City Opera House. In this case, recycling involves the town’s public image. Every season’s worth of live performances, she said, will be a Cultural (with a capital C) magnet for tourists and inhabitants of nearby Denver, who were previously drawn to a different sort of culture--gambling.

Four years ago, Kelly left Colorado to study international relations at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. “It wasn’t unusual because daughters tend to have similar interests as their family’s,” Bill said.

But at school she immediately became active in environmental causes. As a freshman, she founded a chapter of Earth Action, a national organization devoted to promoting environmental activism among students. She also chaired Occidental’s Earth Week observances during her first two years there.

At her graduation ceremonies earlier this month, Kelly reflected on her early college days.

“I saw a very broad definition of environmentalism--health, resource efficiency, quality of life,” she said, adding that such an approach expanded her thinking about complex social and environmental problems.

“Policy-makers don’t care about science, and environmental problems aren’t being solved by biologists and chemists. We need to bridge that,” she said.

This kind of thinking led her into Occidental’s Environmental Science and Environmental Studies Program, a coordinate major program in environmental policy that was just starting when she came to Los Angeles. Enrollment didn’t mean cutting back on her academic load in international relations. Rather, it meant adding equal burden of courses in her own, personally chosen field--environmentalism. She bit the bullet.

Her efforts earned her a coveted Truman Scholarship during her junior year for graduate study at a U.S. university of her choice. This honor, which includes a $30,000 stipend, is considered by the academic community to be the American equivalent of a Rhodes scholarship.

Her special area of study is analyzing how environmental problems provoke refugee flow, a topic that is as esoteric as it sounds. Having begun as a Sovietologist--the Cold War was still with us when Kelly started college--she made an astute career transition.

Having switched from studying the threat of Russian expansion to the threat of resource depletion, “She’s put herself at the cutting edge of a new field,” said one of her professors, Larry T. Caldwell. “It’ll be taught everywhere in five years.”

For Kelly, the point is simple: “If you improve environmental and health conditions internationally, people aren’t going to need to move here .”

Meanwhile, during the same period, her dad was making a similar transition.

A Colorado high-tech firm, TGF Inc., which specialized in computerized information management, had hired Bill as a consultant. It turned out that most of the work involved organizing data about environmental topics, which then became the firm’s new area of specialization.

As a result, next month Bill begins a several-months’ assignment in Washington to manage a contract with the Executive Office of the President at the White House to upgrade computer networks that track environmental technology developments worldwide.

And, to further compound the coincidence, next month Kelly also begins a summer internship in an office near her dad’s. She will serve as a White House Fellow, a program open to both Truman Scholars and other outstanding students. Fellows complete six- to 10-week internships that provide work experience in all aspects of the Executive Branch. Kelly has been assigned to the Office of Environmental Policy.

At Kelly’s graduation, Bill commented about the convergence of family vocations in a wistful reference to the difference in their age: “She has a lifetime ahead of her to do what I could only begin now.”

But Kelly’s mother was more focused on her daughter’s career prospects. “She’s always had to do what she thought was timely--and found a way to do it,” JoAnn said. “She had to overcome a lot of peer pressure--some kids thought she was bossy.”

But the family was supportive, said JoAnn, who clearly believes her daughter has a bright future. “I always knew she had it in her to make a contribution. At home with the family we always talked about the environment. We got pretty far afield, though, with Bill talking about his computer networks.” This seemingly unrelated talk, however, turned out to be career-making stuff for both Bill and Kelly.

Even while she was still a student at Occidental, Kelly was able to get jobs and internships with the United Nations and the State Department helping personnel to make use of computer networks.

Her father’s influence and advice, combined with her Occidental studies, qualified her for a paid internship at Fluor Daniel Environmental Operating Services Inc. in Irvine during her senior year. The first non-engineer to be awarded such a post at the environmental cleanup firm, she was assigned to develop a computer-based system by which the firm could track clients, competitors, technology vendors and markets.

“She made such a great contribution as an intern that we hired her as an employee while she was still in college,” said Dave Myers, president of the environmental firm.

The Occidental College administration also invited her onto a search committee to choose a professor to lead the new Environmental Coordinate Major program.

Early on people noticed Kelly’s “strength in strategic planning,” JoAnn said.

Indeed, according to the program director, Dr. James Sadd, there were no precedents for the new program, allowing as it does students in every department to add environmental studies to their degree. In summing up Kelly’s college career, Sadd said: “She was our star student--an example of what we are trying to do.”

Ever the pioneer, Kelly knows there is still much to do, and she is quite clear about what is important to her and other young women in the sciences.

“My message is that women should not be intimidated by a ‘scientific career,’ ” she said. “You should show your strength and let yourself shine.”