Staff
Kids in Common would not exist without the contributions and work of its partners and supporters. After 25 years of immeasurable impact and dedicated, successful service to Santa Clara County, Kids in Common's long-standing Executive Director, Dana Bunnett, retired on June 30th, 2025, and was succeeded by Joy Murrieta, who had served as the Co-ED with Dana since December 2024.
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Joy Murrieta, Executive Director
Joy Murrieta is a relentless agent of change and fierce advocate for accessible, positive youth development. She is an award-winning nonprofit co-founder and executive director with over 12 years of extensive experience within the nonprofit sector, as well as social-emotional development through arts and music education. Joy is passionate about strategic planning, developing partnerships, and facilitating data-driven action, and is seasoned in collaborating with community stakeholders to educate, engage, and catalyze to create positive, lasting change.
Prior to joining Kids in Common, Joy served for 12 years as Co-Founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit youth enrichment organization in Massachusetts that focused on youth empowerment through the arts with an emphasis on social-emotional learning and positive youth development through data-driven and cross-sector community partnerships; she developed partnerships with local government, public school district, and community organizations to offer free, year-round after-school & summer art programs for the city’s youth, and provided a safe-space for all youth to explore and express their identities through the arts, cultivate a positive sense of self, and enabling them to form positive, trusting relationships with peers and adults. In recognition for her work in the community, Joy received the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network's 2020 Young Professional Excellence Award, the City of Worcester’s 2021 Youth Champion Award, the Worcester Business Journal’s 2022 Nonprofit Leader of the Year Award, and a Key to the City of Worcester in 2022, among other awards and recognition.
In addition to receiving her Bachelor’s Degree from Crown College in Minnesota in 2012, Joy graduated from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice (a Tufts University organization) in Massachusetts with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management as well as Clark University in Massachusetts with a Certificate in Nonprofit Youth Work, both in May 2018. She is also a graduate of the 2019 Leadership Worcester Class and the 2021 Philanthropy MA’s Nonprofit Learning Institute.
After spending 12 years working in the nonprofit sector in Massachusetts, Joy and her spouse moved to California in early 2024 to live closer to her extended family and seek out further professional opportunities to make a positive community impact on the west coast. Joy is currently a member of the Junior League of San Jose and Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley; beyond her nonprofit work, she enjoys dancing, drawing, longboarding, traveling, baking, gaming, singing, and playing guitar.​