Earn It! Keep It! Save It!

Who We Are

Vanessa Muñiz began working with EKS in 2006 and is preparing for her 5th tax season. Her experience includes leading the Alameda County Coalition and supporting regional program design and implementation. Vanessa holds a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in Nonprofit Management and Administration.

Kelly Batson also joined the EKS team in 2006. Her experience as an AmeriCorps*NCCC member for two years enables her to effectively work within a coalition of CBOs and get to the heart of the EKS program.  Kelly holds a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in Nonprofit Management and Administration. She served as a VITA volunteer in Phoenix, Arizona in 2003, and in San Francisco for the past three tax seasons. 

Ray Li began his work with EKS in 2007. Ray’s experience includes working on the marketing materials distributed for EKS as well as assisting with other vital pieces of the program such as funding to tax sites and asset development resources distribution to coalition members. Ray grew up in San Francisco, and plans to train and certify as a volunteer tax preparer for the 2011 tax season.

Khatchadour Khatchadourian worked with EKS last year as an intern from UC Berkeley. His background  includes being a teacher and coach for students in mathematics, as well as a Haas School research fellow in Lebanon where he covered elections, and surveyed local populations on their attitudes about the political process. He also was instrumental in helping EKS with our client data survey results, which are being used to improve our program. He is fluent in English, Arabic and Western Armenian, and Turkish.

Breana Stokes joined the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! team as our AmeriCorps*VISTA in November 2010 and now she is with us full time as a Program Associate. She comes to EKS with a background in education. She has her Masters in Education and her teaching credential, and her most recent experience has been in special education classrooms. She has been integral to EKS "going viral" in just the short time she has been here. Her other work in EKS includes, leading our Contra Costa coalition, managing our volunteer infrastructure and assisting with program planning.

Praise Santos, our current AmeriCorps*VISTA, hails from Orlando, Florida and worked at Disney World. She went to school for organizational communications with a focus in the non-profit sector.  While going to school, she free-lanced as a photographer and graphic designer. In her spare time, she works on her joke delivery and arranging leftovers in various size Tupperware. As our newest member of the EKS team, she'll be working on our social media plan, telling the untold EKS story, supporting the 2013 marketing campaign, grant writing and research as well as other general EKS program support.