National Community Tax Coalition Steering Committee
Members of the National Community Tax Coalition's Steering
Committee give voice to the concerns and issues of Coalition affiliates
and the low- and moderate-income taxpayers they serve. Representative
of a great variety of free tax preparation programs from all four continental
US time zones and ethnically diverse urban and rural communities, as
well as some key national partners, Steering Committee members play an
integral role in shaping the activities and direction of the Coalition
and the free tax preparation field. (Photo: Josh Harriman).
Committee Members
Amy Audetat worked for Alternatives Federal Credit Union, a community development financial institution and national leader in asset development for people of modest means in Ithaca, NY, from 2002 to 2007. Amy worked with several programs at Alternatives, including the Student Credit Union, the free tax program, and financial counseling. Amy regularly addresses local and national audiences on free tax preparation, asset development, personal money management, and the Alternatives Credit Path. Previously, Amy served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer in Cedar Rapids, IA where she was a community organizer for a neighborhood association. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Russian from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA. In 2007, she moved to Durham for graduate studies.
Marques Benton is an Assistant Vice President in the Public and Community Affairs Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In this role, he is responsible for the Bank’s consumer regulation outreach and community development research activities. In addition to encouraging public and private partnerships, the department strives to promote both fair access and wise use of financial services. He is also a director on four local boards working with public, private and academic institutions. Additionally, Marques has worked on several research projects including studies on consumer payments behavior and the unbanked. The consumer payments behavior research has become the foundation of the Bank’s new Emerging Payments Research Center. The research on the unbanked is being used to evaluate effective methods to provide government payments to the unbanked. Marques holds a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.
Sandra Bernard-Bastien is Director of Government, Public Affairs and Community Development at the Children’s Services Council of Broward County (CSC), a funding agency for programs aimed at improving the life of children and families. She coordinates a county-wide public awareness campaign which alerts low income families to a previously under-utilized tax rebate, the Earned Income Tax Credit. Under her stewardship, the program has brought in some $47.3 million extra income in two years to Broward County. She also has leadership roles in the Million Meals Committee, which has brought the issue of hunger to the forefront of Broward residents and the Broward Immigration Coalition, which advocates for policies that support new immigrants
Amy Brown is a consultant who specializes in economic development policies and programs.
In 2001, Ms. Brown developed and launched a large-scale Earned Income Tax Credit campaign in New
York City. The campaign, which includes public education, free tax preparation, access to bank
accounts and public policy advocacy, has brought tens of millions of dollars to working families in
the city. Ms. Brown's experience also includes research, policy analysis and program development
in the areas of job training, hunger and nutrition, welfare reform and government benefits.
Brown is a long-time advocate on issues of concern to low-income families and communities.
Donnicus Cook Donnicus Cook serves as the President/CEO of Broad Spectrum Community Development
Corporation, a community-based organization providing programs and services in the areas of financial and
asset development, business development and housing. Under his direction, Broad Spectrum has developed an
extensive free income tax preparation program, connecting low-income families to financial literacy workshops,
mainstream banking services, and asset building strategies. Donnicus established a business resource center to
assist small business owners and entrepreneurs in developing new and growing existing businesses. He has worked
closely with the IRS, City and County of Los Angeles and several other community organizations in building a
local coalition to support EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) and CTC (Child Tax Credit) outreach, generating
millions of dollars for Los Angeles' working families. Donnicus is a member of the Board of Directors of the
All City Employees Benefits Services Association, and the L.A. Association of Black Personnel.
Diane DiGiacomo, APR, has more than 20 years of experience in the public
relations field. She has been the communications director at The Piton
Foundation in Denver since 1990. Her responsibilities include strategic
communications planning for all the foundation's program areas, media
relations, and writing and coordinating all foundation publications, web
site content and electronic media. In addition, she developed the foundation's
annual statewide campaign on the Earned Income Tax Credit, through which
more than 1,000,000 educational materials are distributed each year. Ms.
DiGiacomo also created and operates the foundation's free tax-assistance
program. She has a master's degree in public relations from The American
University in Washington, DC and an undergraduate degree in English Education
from the University of Maryland.
Mary Dupont is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Nehemiah
Gateway CDC in Wilmington, Delaware, and has twenty-five years of
experience in community organizing, non-profit development and management.
At Nehemiah Gateway, she started a statewide EITC Campaign two years
ago which served 5,500 community residents this year in 16 locations.
Prior to her work with Nehemiah Gateway, Ms. Dupont founded several
successful programs focused on small business and career and asset
development at YWCA of New Castle County. She has also consulted
nationally with the Corporation for Enterprise Development, the Grameen
Foundation, and numerous international organizations on program design, evaluation,
and industry development. She holds a B.A from the University of
Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Social Administration from Temple University.
Bonnie Esposito has served as the Executive Director of AccountAbility
Minnesota since September 2002. For over twenty-five years, Ms.
Esposito has been designing and implementing community-based volunteer and
community service programs through state, municipal, business association,
community action agencies and corporations in various sized cities in Minnesota,
Michigan, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin. Ms. Esposito
has worked as a national consultant and trainer, Executive Director of a non-profit
agency, a small business owner, and manager of several municipal programs.
In her last position she served as the State Director of the Minnesota Office
of Citizenship and Volunteer Services. She presently serves on a number of
statewide Boards managing volunteerism and national service, and recently
was included in "Who's Who in American Women."
Rita Eygabroad is the director of the C.A.S.H. Coalition (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) in Rochester, New York. C.A.S.H. was established in 2002 with the mission of creating opportunities for workers with low incomes to obtain, maintain and build economic assets. This community collaborative of human service organizations, banks, credit unions, academia and local government, is led by the United Way of Greater Rochester. In addition to EITC outreach and free income tax return preparation, C.A.S.H. volunteers along with community professionals, link interested clients to community resources such as food stamps, affordable health care and insurance, child care subsidies, bank and credit union services, home buying programs, money management education, and credit counseling. Before joining C.A.S.H. in 2004, Ms. Eygabroad had more than 15 years of management experience in the areas of economic and accounting analysis, systems operations, strategic planning, purchasing, materials management, and call center operations. She also had two years of experience as a self employed licensed financial advisor. Ms. Eygabroad has an MBA from the Simon School of the University of Rochester, an MS in applied statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in Mathematics from Clarkson University.
Lucy Gorham is the Director of the EITC Carolinas Initiative at MDC.
MDC's mission is to advance the South through strategies that expand
opportunity, reduce poverty, and build inclusive communities. EITC
Carolinas supports a growing network of over thirty organizations
across North and South Carolina, primarily in rural counties, that assist
low- and moderate-income working families to access the Earned Income Tax
Credit and to plan for a more secure financial future. Lucy's previous positions
include Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, staff member for the Joint
Economic Committee and the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations and
Human Resources of the U.S. Congress, and consultant to the North Carolina
Governor's Rural Prosperity Task Force and the Office of Economic Development
at UNC. She serves as Board Chair of the Center for Economic Justice in Austin,
Texas. Areas of expertise include the economics of work and poverty and low-income
housing. Educational background: urban and regional planning; human biology
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University).
Abby Hughes Holsclaw serves as the Program Director, Early Childhood and Family
Economic Success, at the National League of Cities' Institute for
Youth, Education and Families. In this role, Abby supports the Institute's
efforts to strengthen the capacity of municipal leaders to meet the
needs of children, youth, and families in their communities. Prior
to her position at the Institute, Abby spent several years as a policy analyst
at Kentucky Youth Advocates working on state fiscal issues and innovative
family strengthening strategies. She also served as the Director of Research
for a municipality in Arkansas leading efforts to increase fiscal resources
and strengthen families and neighborhoods. Abby earned a Bachelor's degree
from Ouachita Baptist University and a Masters in Public Policy Administration
from Baylor University.
Steve Holt has served as Director of the City of Milwaukee’s Community Block Grant Administration, Executive Director of the Milwaukee Jobs Initiative, and a lobbyist at the state and federal levels on welfare, employment, and tax policy. His firm Holt & Associates Solutions provides planning, evaluation, management, and public policy consulting services to foundations and non-profit organizations. Since 2003, he has coordinated data collection and analysis for the National Tax Assistance for Working Families Campaign under contract with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Recent publications include “Keeping it in Context: Earned Income Tax Credit Compliance and Treatment of the Working Poor” (Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal), “Marginal Tax Rates Facing Low- and Moderate-Income Workers Who Participate in Means-Tested Transfer Programs” (National Tax Journal) and The Earned Income Tax Credit at Age 30: What We Know (Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program). Holt is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Jean Hunt serves as the Executive Director of the Campaign for Working Families in Philadelphia.
Her experience includes Program Director, Children, Youth and Families programs at the William
Penn Foundation; Executive Director of the Mayor's Children and Families Cabinet, City of Philadelphia;
Assistant Managing Director assigned to the Department of Recreation; Executive Director of the Elizabeth
Blackwell Health Center for Women; twenty years experience as an RN in the health care field providing
both direct clinical services and health care administration, and community organizing work.
Marshall Hunt has over 34 years of experience in tax administration
at the IRS and 20 years as a tax volunteer, and is now the Director
of the Tax Assistance Program at the Volunteer Accounting Service
Team of Michigan (VAST-MI). In 1995, Mr. Hunt received Vice President Gore's
National Performance Review Hammer Award for his work with the Michigan Family
Independence Agency in establishing a wage reporting system that provides
thousands of home help workers with social security coverage and income reporting.
A Certified Public Accountant since 1972, he has been active in the Michigan
Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) and was the recipient
of the MACPA Outstanding CPA in Government Award. Mr. Hunt received an M.S.
in taxation from Walsh College in 1980, and a B.A. in business administration
from University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1969, where he has been an Adjunct
Lecturer in the School of Management since 1986. He is married to Nancy Hunt
and has one stepson, Gregory Peterson.
Richart Keller is a member of AICP (American Institute of Certified
Planners) and has been a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation
for the last three years, serving as the Program Coordinator for the Providence
Asset Building Coalition, an initiative of Making Connections Providence.
Rick is an urban and environmental planner and an experienced project
manager with a wide range of experience which includes community development,
community organizing, housing, organizational development of non-profits,
community mediation, facilitation, intergovernmental relations,
and environmental planning and management. He has been a consultant for over
17 years, both on his own and for over a decade with a large national environmental
engineering firm; he has served as Executive Director of a community development
corporation and has been a Board member of various local and regional non-profit
organizations. Rick has lived in Providence, Rhode Island for the last 22
years.
Kristy Koberna is the Executive Director of Tax-Aid, a nonprofit organization
of CPAs, attorneys and others that provide free income tax preparation
to low-income families in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the three
years since Ms. Koberna joined Tax-Aid, the program has more than
doubled the number of clients it serves and the amount ofrefunds
generated. In 2004 alone 2451 families received more than $2,378,000
in refunds. Tax-Aid is currently coordinating 27 free tax preparation
sites in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda and Marin counties.
Prior to joining Tax-Aid, Ms. Koberna served as the Deputy Executive
Director of the California Society of CPAs. She holds a Masters in
Education Administration degree from Brigham Young University and was a Community
Education Fellow with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
David Marzahl is the Executive Director of the Center for Economic Progress in Chicago. The Center is a statewide advocacy and service organization that seeks to increase economic opportunities for low-income families, children and individuals by improving access to public, private and non-profit programs and services. The Center operates the Tax Counseling Project, the largest statewide free, community-based tax preparation program in the U.S. Prior to joining the Center in 1998, Mr. Marzahl was the founding director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights, a statewide coalition of organizations promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees. Mr. Marzahl has a Master's Degree in Political Economy from Northwestern University.
Nayoakee Parker is the Asset Development Manager for the Social Development Commission (SDC),
the lead agency for the Milwaukee Asset Building Coalition (MABC) in MIlwaukee, Wisconsin. After
years of helping family and friends prepare taxes, Nayoakee capitalized on her extensive background in
accounting and began her tenure at SDC as an Accounts Payable Supervisor. A little over a year later,
she was promoted to her current position. Nayoakee holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Cardinal
Stritch University and is currently preparing to return Cardinal Stritch to complete an M.S. in Business Management.
William Porro is the Special Projects Administrator for the City of Miami. He serves in this capacity to coordinate the resources of the Department of Community Development in conjunction with the Mayor’s initiatives to reduce poverty. In 2005,he helped create and launch ACCESS Miami, the second phase of the Mayor’s original anti-poverty plan. William’s other responsibilities includes positioning the City of Miami favorably when attracting new funding sources. William’s career in the financial services industry spans more than 18 years, including positions of high level responsibility in both international and domestic financial services and marketing for such Fortune 500 Companies as American Express Financial Advisors, Citibank and CIGNA. William was instrumental in first launching PC Banking, financial service phone cards, and bilingual direct response marketing into Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. His community service background includes starting a nonprofit organization called the World Mission of Jesus Christ in Miami, Fl which serves the Haitian American Community and includes a food pantry, and assisting with children’s educational program.
David Rothstein is a researcher at Policy Matters Ohio. David researches tax, wage and consumer policy, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, the living wage, payday lending, and predatory lending. He also works on energy policy with the Apollo Alliance for clean energy and good jobs. David serves on the Steering Committee for the Cuyahoga EITC Coalition, which is Ohio's largest free tax preparation, asset building, and EITC effort. Each year, David produces reports on the EITC and RALs across Ohio. David has a B.A. in Political Science from John Carroll University in Cleveland and a Master's in Political Science from Kent State University, where he is pursuing a Ph.D.
Dave Sieminski is Manager of Asset Development Programs for United
Way of King County (UWKC). He has been with United Way since 1999
and has over 20 years experience in program management in the private
and non-profit sectors. Dave oversees the individual development
account (IDA) program, the earned income tax credit campaign and
the workplace based IDA planning initiative. Dave has an undergraduate
degree in economics from Western Washington University and Masters in Public
Administration from the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of
Washington.
Pam Smith is the Manager of the EITC and Volunteer Programs within Community Action Project,
a comprehensive anti-poverty agency with over 300 employees and over 450 volunteers. Over the span
of her career, Pam has worked in a variety of arenas including human resources, sales and accounting.
Pam began her work with Community Action Project in 1998 with leadership responsibilities in human resources,
project management and volunteer oversight. Pam has been actively involved in the EITC Program for five
years providing volunteer and support staff coordination during each tax season. In 2001, Pam assumed the
role of manager for the EITC Program. Through Pam's leadership skills and the ability to work with community
volunteers, she led the program to a record high year of returning nearly $20 million in tax refunds to
individuals and families in the Tulsa Community during the 2003 tax season successfully concluding the 10th
year of the Free Tax Program.
Mimi Turchinetz is the Living Wage Administrator for the City of Boston
and Mayor Thomas Menino's Campaign Director for the Boston Earned
Income Tax Credit Campaign. An attorney who received a Juris Doctor
from New England School of Law and a BA from University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, Ms. Turchinetz is a long time community and political
activist who focuses her work on economic development and community
empowerment. She has been active in the Community Development Corporation
and Housing movement for a number of years and is currently a founding
member and the Vice-Chairperson of the Southwest Boston Community
Development Corporation, a start-up CDC in the Boston neighborhoods
of Hyde Park and Roslindale. As the current Campaign Director of
the Boston EITC Campaign she has guided a coalition of the City of
Boston, businesses, regulators and community-based organizations,
effectively opening and staffing 20 free tax preparation sites in
the city of Boston. Last year's Boston EITC campaign brought back
over $7 million dollars into the pockets of low to moderate income
taxpayers and provided an economic engine to the neighborhoods of Boston.
Non-Voting Members
Mary Ruth Herbers is the Director of Programs at the Center for Economic Progress in Chicago working on tax policy, tax outreach and education, and tax training programs focused on the needs of low-income households. The Center for Economic Progress is a central organizing partner of the Make Work Pay Coalition, which secured the creation of an Illinois earned income tax credit. Ms. Herbers has a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and has worked on numerous public policy and outreach campaigns, including serving for three years as Professional Staff for the U. S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on Hunger.
Steering Committee Staff
Jackie Lynn Coleman serves as the Co-Director of the National Community Tax Coalition, a project of the Center for Economic Progress, and Director of Capacity Building and Training for the Center for Economic Progress. Jackie Lynn has 5 years of experience in Community Banking and 10 years of experience working in the areas of organizational, community, economic, and workforce development, as well as public policy. Much of her experience has focused on homeless issues, housing development, women and girls' access to nontraditional training and employment opportunities, job development for women and women with disabilities and tax services for low- and moderate-income workers. In the past she has provided capacity building to a number of organizations, apprenticeship programs across the nation, the Chicago One-Stop Career Centers and the Illinois Department of Human Services. She is a candidate for a Ph.D.in Human Services Administration, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Spertus College with a M.S. in Human Services Administration, and gained a B.S. with honors in Political Science from Chicago State University.
Jonathan Njus, the Co-Director of the Steering Committee and Director of Advocacy for the Center for Economic Progress, comes to the Center and NCTC with a commitment to social justice and a strong knowledge of our area of work and organizational focus. Most recently, he has been working as a consultant to non-governmental organizations in Hungary, where he and his wife have lived for the past year and a half. Previously he was director of Housing Advocacy at the Archdiocese of Chicago, pushing to create more affordable housing throughout the city. He also worked with the National Council of La Raza in Washington, DC during the late 90s, combating planned cuts in the EITC and researching and writing on issues of taxation and economic security with regard to Hispanic Americans. He has a Master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and grew up in Michigan.