Director Bios
Paul B. Miller
Executive Director
Throughout the 30+ years of an extraordinary career in education, Paul has successfully led Kidango to become one of the leading educational institutes for children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since joining Kidango (then Tri-Cities Children’s Centers) in 1979, Paul has been instrumental in helping Kidango grow from serving just 90 children at one center in Fremont to serving over 2,500 children attending 40 centers and family child care homes located in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties.
Paul was appointed by the California Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Universal Preschool Task Force. As a major contributor to this movement, Paul has successfully brought Universal Preschool to the New Haven Unified School District and continues to work hard to introduce Universal Preschool to other Bay Area school districts.
Paul has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Math as well as a master’s degree in Administration.
Karen Flores
Deputy Director
Karen brings over 15 years of experience working with children and families to her role as Kidango's Deputy Director. As Deputy Director, Karen is responsible for the development and supervision of Kidango's Education, Nutrition, Early Intervention Services, Head Start, Community Family Services and Mental Health Services Departments.
In her previous role as Kidango's Director of Mental Health Services, Karen provided support and training to staff, children and families through direct and indirect services. She has over ten years of experience in infant mental health, early intervention for children with special needs and mental health consultation. She has participated in the Harris Early Mental Health Training Program, Incredible Years training, Dr. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints Training and is a trainer of the CSEFEL (Center on the Social and Emotional Foundation for Early Learning) model for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
In 1997, Karen developed and taught programs on behavior modification through positive reinforcement for Ann Sullivan Preschool and Elementary School in Naucalpan, Mexico. Karen was a bilingual instructor of classes for parents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and families of mentally ill patients for Kaiser Permanente at their Santa Teresa facility in San Jose. She has developed and leads a series of bilingual workshops titled "How a Child's Special Needs Impacts the Family" and "Infant Development" for the parent led coalition Parents Helping Parents.
Karen has attended several trainings to address key issues of being an effective trainer. Through these trainings, she has developed knowledge in adult learning styles, training facilitation, addressing English language learners, development and implementation of effective training and addressing culture and diversity issues.
Karen is a licensed psychologist in Mexico and has a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from JFK University. She is currently a Marriage and Family registered intern.
Kate Breitzman
Director of Facilities & Operations
Kate Breitzman’s role at Kidango is to work with collaborative partners in designing, setting-up and licensing new facilities. Kate is responsible for ensuring all Kidango centers provide an environment that is conducive to learning with safe, appropriate and comfortable settings for all children. Kate has over twenty years experience with Community Care Licensing regulations and has over twelve years experience with construction projects, including those funded by Community Development Block Grant programs. In addition, Kate has experience with the regulations and quality standards applicable to early care and education programs, including certification as a playground safety inspector. Kate is also a member of Kidango’s Risk Management Committee and oversees Kidango’s Maintenance and Technology Departments.
Over the past 13 years Kate has led Kidango to successfully license all of our centers, including the opening of over 40 new centers. Kate currently chairs Kidango's Safety Committee and has worked extensively with Cal-OSHA to monitor the safety of our centers.
Kate has an educational background in Liberal Studies, Early Child Development and Playground Safety.
Andrea Garcia
Director of Mental Health Services
Andrea is a bilingual/bicultural (Spanish) mental health therapist who oversees Kidango's twenty-two mental health clinicians and five interns/trainees who provide services for over 400 families in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties. Kidango's mental health services are designed to provide treatment and intervention services to children from birth to twelve years old who have social, emotional and behavioral difficulties.
In her previous role as Kidango's Santa Clara County Clinical Supervisor, Andrea managed Kidango's Santa Clara County EPSDT program, provided individual and group clinical supervision to our Santa Clara County mental health clinicians, provided direct screening and assessment services to clients, monitored and ensured that documentation and case records were developed and maintained in accordance with agency, Medi-Cal and social services standards and was responsible for the overall functioning, quality and outcomes of our Santa Clara County program.
Since 2005, Andrea has worked within school districts, colleges and community based mental health organizations to provide direct services that are responsive to the psycho-social developmental needs of children, adolescents and their families. These services included providing crisis intervention, advocacy and follow-up for child victims of sexual assault and their families and providing individual and family therapy to diverse student populations exhibiting severe social and emotional impairments. In addition, Andrea worked collaboratively with Fred Finch Youth Center, Contra Costa County Mental Health and Mount Diablo High School District to coordinate and provide services to an identified group of students who required intensive mental health support.
Andrea has participated in the first year of the Santa Clara County Infant-Family Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program and has received training in Dr. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints Training. Andrea has provided trainings to other professionals who work with child victims of sexual abuse and has been invited by community organizations to speak with parents about normal sexual development in children as well as how to talk to their children about their bodies.
Andrea has a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and a master's degree in Counseling Psychology (MFT track) with a specialization in Child and Adolescent Therapy from John F. Kennedy University.
Lance Lawson
Director of Development and Communications
As the Director of Development and Communications, Lance oversees the Development and Communications Department. He leads his team in handling all internal and external Kidango communications, assisting our child development centers in their marketing and fundraising efforts, coordinating Kidango’s agency-wide fundraising events, managing the overall process of tracking grant opportunities and grant reporting, and working with individual and corporate donors.
Lance has over 20 years of experience in a variety of marketing and communications positions at not for-profit and for-profit companies in the Bay Area. He has also worked for nearly 20 years in development as a volunteer and employee at several local agencies.
Lance’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford and a Master’s degree from the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He is also a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Silicon Valley.
Nereyra Houle
Director of Finance
As Kidango’s Director of Finance, Nereyra is responsible for overseeing the agency’s accounting and program compliance functions. In this position, she works to ensure Kidango is in compliance with funding terms and conditions of all funding sources and ensures Kidango follows generally accepted accounting principles including those set by the Independent Auditor, the Federal Office of Management and Budget, and Kidango’s Board of Directors.
Prior to taking on the Director of Finance role, Nereyra spent two years as Kidango’s Finance Manager which provided her extensive experience with the financial systems of Kidango. Her past work as a Senior Accountant for the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland, CA and an Accountant for Instituto Familiar de la Raza in San Francisco, CA have also equipped her with the skills to successfully lead Kidango’s Finance Department. In these positions, Nereyra has managed all accounting functions including payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, account reconciliations, revenue recognition, cost allocations and financial reporting.
Nereyra has long been devoted to employing her skills in agencies committed to the betterment of the community. She takes great pride in her work at Kidango and the contribution she is able to make to the organization’s current and future financial stability. Nereyra holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business in addition to a Public Accounting Certificate. She is also fluent in English and Spanish.
Amit Patel
Director of Human Resources
As Kidango’s Director of Human Resources, Amit oversees the Human Resources Department and core department functions, including but not limited to: personnel administration, recruitment and election, retention, separation, compensation administration, employee relations, appeals, investigations, training and safety, benefits, affirmative action and workers compensation. He also ensures the agency complies with various Federal and State regulations.
In his prior role of Staff Accountant at Kidango, he shaped the Finance Department’s cost allocation processes and procedures and used efficiency tools to analyze financial growth and viability of Kidango’s cost centers. He also supervised Kidango’s Payroll Department which provided him with an insight and understanding of corporate culture which further allowed him to effectively navigate relationships between management and line staff.
Amit has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Accounting.