Staff

Photo: Breakthrough Collaborative
National Leadership
Vince Marigna, Chief Executive Officer

Jeremy Gough, Chief Development Officer

Rachel Martinez de Canada, Chief Culture & Operating Officer

Alex Serna, Chief Program Officer
Today, he is the Chief Program Officer at the Breakthrough Collaborative. He previously served for almost eight years as the Executive Director and before that Program Director of Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano. There he led the program’s expansion into college, tripled the number of students being served, and grew their endowment to over 1 million dollars.
He supports national initiatives in education, having served on the Millennial Commission on Education as a Senior Fellow, where he helped develop key policy recommendations in the advancement of education reform. He is a Ricardo Salinas Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2017 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Emerging Leader.
Alex volunteers his time on advisory boards such as the University of California, Irvine’s School of Social Ecology Field Study Program, nonprofits like the Wellness and Prevention Center, and the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund.
He also serves as an expert on college access and educational policy. He has been featured in The New York Times, EdSurge, Washington Post, The Hill, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, The Hechinger Report, and NACAC’s Journal of College Admissions.
He believes passionately in the power of education and its potential to change lives, just like it transformed his. He lives in San Diego with his high school sweetheart and four daughters.

National Staff
Jonathan Appleby, Director of Recruitment
Mara Bernstein, Executive Administrator
Kyle Bobrick, National Communications Manager
Sara Camacho, Success Manager
Michael Chong, Business Operations Manager
Jee Deogracias, Director of Research & Evaluation
Christina Donahue, Culture & Collaboration Manager
Leah Ehinger, Development Operations Manager

Phyllis Elick, Senior Program Director

Tieler Giles, Director of Marketing & Communications

Natalie Jacobs Hall, Recruitment and Residency Manager

Ambler Mauger Ochstein, National Director of Institutional Partnerships

Tori Perrakis, Salesforce Administrator

Kyla Phillips, Talent Manager

Katie Post, National Director of Philanthropy
Katie holds a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the proud mom/step-mom to five children with her husband.

Jenny Song, Manager of Research & Evaluation

Nicholas Wilson, Manager of Learning and Curriculum

Meredith Zackey, Senior Director of Program Success
