Administrative Team
Kids’ Country’s Administrative Team brings years of experience in child development, business, nonprofit program management, and fund development.
Ann Tancioco
Executive Director
Ann joined Kids’ Country in 2014 as a Program Manager, supporting program quality and professional development for staff. Most recently, Ann was a Program Director overseeing multiple child care centers throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley with Child Development Incorporated, working in partnership with the Program Development team in offering training opportunities for staff, supporting continuous program quality improvement and innovation for both preschool and school age programs. Throughout her 20+ year career, she has worked not only in after school programs but has also overseen government contracts to provide child care, advocacy initiatives, and Resource & Referral programs.
Ann earned her Bachelors of Science Degree in Human Development with a minor in Asian American Studies at the University of California at Davis. She also participated in the Santa Clara County Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute offered by the University of Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management. Ann has lived in San Ramon since 2004 with her husband and their two children. Both boys have attended summer camps at several sites, with the youngest attending the after school program at Quail Run.
Erika Avalos
Strategic and Operations Director
Erika Avalos joined Kids' Country September 2023 as the Operations and Strategic Director. She has over 23 years of experience in the education and childcare field. She is extremely passionate about program quality, leadership, mentoring and empowering staff to have a voice. Her guiding principles on the three elements of success center around building trusting relationships, improving processes and always holding the organization’s values in the forefront to achieve impactful outcomes.
Before joining our team, she was most recently the COO and Director of Operations at Child Development Inc. where she formulated, communicated and executed mission, goals, strategic plans and objectives for the organization. She also played a key role in leading and facilitating a yearlong leadership course for all managers.
Erika received her BA in Child Development and a minor in Spanish from San Jose State University. Born and raised in the South Bay, Erika lives in San Jose with her husband and two daughters. Basketball has always been a big part of her childhood, playing at her school being coached by her dad and watching the warrior’s games. She continues to enjoy this sport and now helps coach her daughter’s school basketball team and is still a huge warrior’s fan!
Terri Wirgler
Finance Director
Terri joined Kids’ Country as the Financial Controller in January of 2019, She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration Accounting from California State University Long Beach. Terri has been in the finance field as a Controller or Regional Controller for over 20 years. Terri’s passion has been being involved and giving back to the community by working in non-profits with youth in Southern California for several years and children and families in the local area in several Executive Leadership roles.
Terri is a longtime SRVUSD parent, which helps her connect with families and understand the needs of our community. She is proud to be part of the Kids' Country family!
Christine Uytengsu
Human Resource Director
Christine is a Human Resources professional with 20 years of experience in the construction industry where she served in leadership roles for companies such as Atlas Technical Consultants, Consolidated Engineering Labs, Turner Construction, and Silverado Contractors, to name a few. During this time, while leading HR operations for companies she worked for, Christine served as chair of the Environmental, Health and Safety committee, and served as an advisor to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Wellness committees where she played a significant role in the development of the programs.
As an HR professional, she strongly believes that HR’s primary goal should be to balance both the company’s interests with the employees’ needs in order to achieve a common vision of success. Christine believes that company culture trumps strategy, this is why she strives to foster team spirit at all times— when employees feel heard and appreciated, it improves employee engagement and culture.
In 2023, Christine made the decision to leave the industry to divert her talent and experience in Human Resources locally for the not-for-profit organization, Kids’ Country as the Director of Human Resources. Christine finds this role personally and professionally fulfilling as it was a goal for her to serve and give back to the San Ramon Valley community where she lives for over 20 years.
Christine was born and raised in Manila, Philippines where she earned her BA in Humanities and a Minor in Communication Arts from De La Salle University. During her free time, she enjoys the outdoors, cycling, playing golf, going on adventures, and hopes to participate in her first sprint triathlon soon.
Lisa La Rocca
Human Resources Manager
Lisa joined the staff of Kids’ Country in 2009, originally tasked with manually entering thousands of parent records into Kids’ Country’s new Parent Portal in preparation for its launch that year. She worked with the Finance Department in Accounts Payable and Receivable and managed payroll before joining the Human Resources team. In 2014, Lisa moved into her new role as Human Resources Manager, overseeing payroll for Kids’ Country’s more than 160 employees and recruiting new talent to the organization. Previously, Lisa worked for 10 years in office management with three different Bay Area construction firms where she managed Accounts Payable and Receivable, payroll and inventory. She and her husband Randy moved to Danville in 2007 after raising two children.
Sheila Savedra
Business Support Manager
Sheila joined Kids Country in June 2024, bringing with her over 30 years of experience in childcare. Her journey began as a preschool teacher, driven by her deep passion for working with children. Sheila is dedicated to developing and implementing effective procedures. Throughout her career, she transitioned into a childcare administrator role, where she skillfully managed government contracts, enrollment, and leveraged various online enrollment and eLearning platforms. She holds a BA degree in Human Development from Cal State East Bay.
Currently residing in South San Jose with her husband, Sheila is a proud parent of two children. During her leisure time, she finds joy in the company of friends and family and exploring new destinations with her husband.
JP Neang
Communications Manager / STEAM Educator
JP's passion for Education has been growing strong for over 12 years. With a background in Design Thinking, she's worked in developing creative programming for the youth with local non-profits, Bay Area community organizations, guest lectures at UC Berkeley's Architecture and Landscape Design, and worked in programming with local institutions such as The Children's Creativity Museum, DeYoung and The Cal Academy of Sciences.
In addition to serving her local community, JP's Philanthropic work globally has served as a personal project. The Global Education initiative to bring back the act of creating children on an international platform. Jp has partnered with Guinean Arts & Culture (Africa), Light & Leadership (Peru), Barefoot College (India), and currently Studio Kura Art School for Youth (Japan). The purpose is to collaborate with multiple international organizations to build, collaborate, and influence change on a global scale for 8 years and growing.
Eugene White
Facilities Manager
Bio Coming soon!
Chris Karney
Summer & Enrichment Coordinator
Chris joined Kids’ Country in January of 2010 as an Assistant Site Director at our Quail Run location. After serving as the Assistant Site Director for 8 months, Chris was promoted to Co-Site Director in the Fall of 2010. If the fall of 2012 Chris became the Site Director of our Coyote Creek location. In October of 2017 was promoted to Summer and Enrichment Coordinator and moved to the Kids’ Country main office. As the Summer and Enrichment Coordinator, Chris oversees preparation for Summer Camps and the Kids’ Country after-school enrichment program. Along with his responsibilities as the Summer and Enrichment Coordinator Chris leads the Kids’ Country Anti-Bullying Committee (ABC). Chris has written a nationally distributed article on his experiences with bullying for the National Afterschool Association monthly newsletter. Chris also has participated in many organizational committees throughout his time working at Kids’ Country. Chris lives in the Tri-Valley with his wife Kelly and three kids. Outside of work Chris enjoys traveling, coaching, grilling, and hanging out with family and friends.
Ryan Gipson
Financial Operations Analyst
Ryan has been working with children in some form since he turned 18. He spent several years working in a Montessori school after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies and Spanish from Seattle University. He joined Kids’ Country in 2011 as a Teacher at our Country Club location. After becoming an Assistant Site Director in 2012 he worked at several different sites in that role as well as assisting with the training of other Assistant Site Directors. In 2020 he became the Site Director at our Coyote Creek location. While serving as a Site Director, Ryan began helping with procurement and other related tasks for the organization which led to him being promoted to the Kids’ Country main office as Financial Operations Analysts. Ryan serves as one of the heads for Kids’ Country’s Anti-Bullying Committee (ABC) as well as KC Athletics. Ryan also led us through the process with the Council on Accreditation (COA) as we successfully completed our journey to remain accredited. He is also one of Kids’ Country’s 2 in house certified CPR & First Aide instructors.
Ryan and his wife (who teaches in the district) are current SRVUSD parents with 1 happy Kids’ Country child and another that will become one in a few years. They enjoy connecting and being a part of the community. In his spare time Ryan enjoys watching and playing sports, cooking, and lots of DIY project on their home.
Jelisa Silos
Administrative Assistant
Jelisa joined the Kids’ Country team in 2022 as an Administrative Assistant tasked with creating easily accessible and organized files for HR and Finance operations. She is currently a college student majoring in Baking and Pastry. Jelisa is new to the childcare world, but she's always excited to learn more as my time here continues. She loves baking new recipes, spending time with friends and family, and trying new coffee/boba shops in her spare time.
This is Kids' Country
Program Information
Kids' Country supports a child's natural curiosity and love of learning in a safe and inspired environment where they can discover their passions and achieve great things.