Kelly Martinez

Business Support Manager
Language/s of Support: ENG, SP

Kelly Martinez immigrated from Mexico in 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition, and she brings experience as a small business owner, adult education, child development and coaching. She has always had a passion for helping her community and leading other women on a transformational pathway to empowerment. By identifying and understanding the needs in the community, Kelly has been able to support the child care workforce to gain the confidence to build a successful business while providing quality care that can transform children’s lives.

Before Children’s Council, Kelly was an AmeriCorps member of the SFUSD School Health Programs. She started working with Children’s Council in 2017, where she has been part of different teams that have led her to understand the needs of the larger community and support our mission. In her role as an advocate and community partner, she has shown her empathy and commitment to advancing racial and economic equity by enabling low-income women of color to earn livable wages and run profitable child care businesses.

With her team, she works to ensure that San Francisco remains an inclusive community where diverse small businesses can flourish and families along the economic continuum can find child care that meets their needs.

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Margarita Spataro

Business Support Manager
Language/s of Support: ENG

Margarita Spataro is dedicated to empowering child care providers with the tools and resources they need to succeed. As the Business Support Manager at Children's Council of San Francisco, she oversees a team of business coaches who support family child care providers in building strong, sustainable businesses. With a background in communications, nonprofit management, and small business support, Margarita brings a wealth of experience to her role.

A passionate advocate for families, she has worked extensively with communities in San Francisco, focusing on early childhood education, small business development, and support for children with disabilities. Margarita is committed to helping providers navigate licensing, business operations, and marketing strategies to strengthen the child care sector.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, exploring the Bay Area, and helping small businesses leverage technology to grow.

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Vanessa Tarantino

Child Care Business Coach
Language/s of Support: ENG, SP

Vanessa Tarantino has been a dedicated professional in the Early Care and Education field since 2011, contributing her expertise through a variety of roles. With a solid foundation from City College of San Francisco, where she focused on Child Development, Vanessa has gained extensive knowledge in Developmentally Appropriate Activities, Parent Curriculums, and the Strengthening Families Framework.

Currently, Vanessa serves as a Child Care Business Coach with the Children's Council of San Francisco, where she is committed to fostering sustainable Family Child Care Businesses throughout California. Her role involves providing essential services such as licensing process technical assistance, business planning, marketing support, and professional development.

Vanessa is deeply aware of California's rich diversity and is dedicated to ensuring that professional development opportunities are accessible to educators across her community. Through a strength-based approach, she strives to empower educators to embrace and support children from various backgrounds, enhancing their ability to provide inclusive and effective care.

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Irma Hernández

Child Care Business Coach
Language/s of Support: ENG, SP

Irma Hernández has dedicated nearly three decades to improving the quality of child care and empowering families and child care providers to reach their goals. With a career that began in 1996 at the Children’s Council, Irma has worked across various roles, each contributing to the betterment of children, families, and child care providers in the community.

Starting as a case manager, Irma worked closely with families, providing case management services that helped them navigate the challenges of early childhood care. As a Trainer for Case Management and Resource and Referral, Irma spent approximately 10 years sharing knowledge and supporting Family Service Specialists.

Transitioning to work with providers, Irma then shifted focus, this time working with child care providers in Subsidies, ensuring they received the necessary support for success. For the past several years, Irma has served as a Child Care Business Coach, a role in which they help individuals interested in obtaining their child care licenses and assist established providers in building sustainable businesses.

In this capacity, Irma has made a tremendous impact, not just on individual providers but also on the wider early childhood education community. One of the key highlights of their current work is the launch of the Pilot Program Family Friends and Neighbors (FFN), which aims to improve child care providers' skills and the overall quality of care.

Above all, what drives Irma is a passion for empowering the community. Their work has always centered on helping others—whether its helping providers build a stable, successful business or ensuring that children receive the highest quality care possible. Through every program and initiative, Irma remains committed to supporting early childhood educators and ensuring that families can rely on accessible, high-quality child care.

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Damina Bellot

Child Care Business Coach
Language/s of Support: ENG

Damina Bellot is a Child Care Business Coach with Children’s Council, where she guides child care providers through the licensing process, business planning, and restructuring their child care business practices to build sustainable, high-quality programs. A San Francisco native, Damina has firsthand knowledge of the Bay Area’s diverse communities and the essential role child care providers play in serving families from varied cultural backgrounds.

With a background in youth development and family services since 2009, Damina has held leadership roles in child care centers and before-and-after school programs across the San Francisco Bay Area and Nashville, Tennessee. She is passionate about supporting educators at every stage of their journey, ensuring they have the tools, resources, and business strategies needed to thrive in the ever-evolving child care landscape.

Damina is also deeply committed to building a diverse child care workforce that reflects the communities it serves, creating greater representation for young children of color in the San Francisco Bay Area. She believes that when children see themselves reflected in their caregivers and educators, it fosters a stronger sense of belonging, identity, and cultural pride

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Zixian Li (Charis)

Child Care Business Coach
Language/s of Support: ENG, CAN, MAN

Zixian Li (Charis) has a decade of experience in the education field, serving as an After School Program Site Coordinator, early childhood educator, and Health and Nutrition Specialist. She is a certified infant massage instructor, lactation educator, Health and Safety trainer, and 0 3 Growing Brain trainer. Her hands-on experience with children, collaboration with families and schools, and expertise in adult training have given her a deep understanding of the needs of early childhood professionals.

Fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, Charis is a passionate advocate for the Chinese-speaking community in San Francisco, ensuring equitable access to resources. She firmly believes that supporting the success of early childhood educators is key to helping more children receive high-quality education.

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