Authors & Experts

Allison Herman (she/her) is director of education at Hope For The Day. She is a peer educator in mental health, suicide prevention, harm reduction, and LGBTQ+ communities. Hope For The Day is a nonprofit movement empowering the conversation on mental health education and proactive suicide prevention. Their work is inspired by lived-experience best practices and endorsed by Hope For The Day’s Clinical Oversight Committee. The main goal of their programming is to provide tools for early recognition and intervention to disrupt the highest risk factors for mental health crises and suicide.

Amber Wilichowski was a first-generation college student. The 25-year-old native of Northwest Arkansas has a passion for creativity and communication. She pursued her academic journey at Northwest Arkansas Community College and later transferred to the University of Arkansas, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a focus in advertising and public relations. Currently, she works as a social media manager at AM Group in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Antonia O’Planick, PsyD, is a clinical health psychologist. She specializes in treating mood disorders, eating disorders, and comorbid medical conditions. She has over 15 years’ experience in the mental health field, working in a variety of settings including large hospital systems, inpatient mental health treatment, specialized outpatient centers, and outpatient care. She currently operates a private practice, Align Psychological Health, in Montgomery County, PA.

Denise Thomas is a TEDx speaker, international best-selling author, and coach to parents of college-bound teens. Thomas inspires, educates, and equips parents to take an active role in supporting their children to live a life of financial freedom. Using her strategy, her two teens attended their first-choice college on 17 scholarships exceeding $199,000, walking out of college with cash in hand. Her mission is to “flip” the student debt statistic in the U.S. Learn more about Denise at www.getaheadoftheclass.com.

Ditra Henry is a Professor Emeritus at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.

She has had an extensive career of teaching and working with underrepresented groups in

education. She taught high school and middle school in the Chicago Public System for several

years before moving into higher education. At Northeastern Illinois University, Ditra taught

Developmental Writing and English as a Second Language Writing Workshop Courses.

Moving to the Community College System, she developed curriculum and designed a Health

Care Bridge Program for adult education students. Currently, she is teaching an English

Language Transition Course for ELL students in adult education. She has been a mentor for

adjunct faculty and has participated on several committees, and teams in the community

college governance system.

Dr. Joanna Hunter is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Radford University and the Center for Social and Cultural Research. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Miami University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from Florida State University. In this interview she discusses how she overcame challenges in college and graduate school to improve her reading skills and eventually earn her doctorate.

Dr. Robert Kohen, an independent educational consultant focused on college admissions. He holds a certificate in college admissions and career planning from UC Berkeley, a PhD from Harvard and a BA from Columbia.

Fatema Jivanjee-Shakir, LMSW is a therapist, writer, and speaker. She specializes in
eating disorders, trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship challenges, and working
with folks of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color) identities. She has
extensive experience working with adults and adolescents in individual, group, and
family therapy at the residential, partial hospitalization (PHP), intensive outpatient
(IOP), and outpatient levels of care. Fatema is a Primary Therapist at The Renfrew
Center, a therapist in private practice at Conason Psychological Services, and a Board
Member of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals New York
chapter.

We sat down with Felicia Keller Boyle, LMFT, a therapist and CEO of The Bad Therapist, a website that helps therapists create thriving therapy practices. Before starting her business, she graduated from Pepperdine University as a low-income student. She shares her experience below.

We sat down with Jade Adams to discuss her experience as a trans college student and beyond. Jade is currently a Senior Analyst at Oscar Health working in data science. She graduated with a BA in Business Economics from UCLA and is currently taking additional classes at her local community college. She has been transitioning for nearly three years.

Jessica Bashaw is the Organizational Development Manager at a global biotech company. Jessica went to four colleges in four states and had four different majors in her five years of undergrad, and later earned her Masters of Science in Adult Education completely online while working full-time and having two kids at home. She is now a doctoral student in a fully online program.

We spoke with Joanna Miller, a fundraising and project management professional who worked as an intern during her college years and has utilized that experience throughout her fundraising career. Joanna’s professional experience spans the public and private sector in the United States and Australia.

Jocelyn Lantrip is the director of marketing and communications at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada (FBNN). The non-profit provides emergency food services to families through a network of more than 155 partner agencies in a 90,000-square-mile service area throughout northern Nevada and eastern California. FBNN serves more than 137,000 people each month, nearly half of whom are children and seniors, providing about 17 million meals to neighbors in need each year.

Joe Orsolini is an expert in college planning who profoundly understands the intricate details of the college financial aid system, college savings, and educational tax breaks. He specializes in the unique financial needs of parents who plan on sending their children to college. Joe draws from many years of experience assisting families of all income levels with the college planning process, college savings, tax preparation, and retirement advice. As a nationally respected authority on college planning, Joe has been featured in a variety of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Kiplinger’s, FOX Business, Savingforcollege.com, Forbes, Business Insider, MSN Money, US News & World Report, and Yahoo Finance. His book, Don’t Pay the College Sticker Price, is set to be released in the fall of 2022.

Our expert, Katey Joyce, earned her MBA in September 2022 through Louisiana State University Shreveport and holds a BFA in Fashion Design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She currently works at Patagonia as a Repair Operations Specialist. This role includes managing the operations between the Reno Repair Facility and Patagonia’s Authorized Third Party Repair Facilities.

We sat down with Katherine Moore, Sustainable Lifestyle Coach to answer some of our burning questions about how to live more sustainably in college. Katherine is a sustainable lifestyle coach based in the UK.

Kelly Hogan, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian in New York City. Kelly is a member of the performance nutrition team at The Juilliard School, where she works with students to develop nutrition plans that best support performance in dance, drama, and music. She is also a part-time clinical dietitian at the Hospital for Special Surgery and runs her own private nutrition counseling practice, focusing on sports and performance nutrition. She completed her dietetic internship and Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition at New York University.

Laura George, the founder of Laura George Consulting, LLC, an expert in the domain of ACT/SAT tutoring, high school, and college consulting. Boasting an illustrious career spanning two decades and insights honed from her involvement with renowned institutions, Laura sheds light on effective SAT strategies, dispelling common myths and optimizing student performance.

Lauren Frick (she/her), is a graduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has taught first-year writing courses as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and she will be serving as a Graduate Student Assistant Director for the Writing and Speaking Initiative for the 2023-24 academic year. She shares her experience from both working in academia as well as her student perspective with us here.

Luz Bertadillo Rodriguez serves as the project manager for state and campus policy initiatives at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. Her career began working in undocumented student programs in New York and California. Her professional and personal work has more recently focused on the merging of mental wellness and immigration through the founding of the UndocuChats Collective. Luz holds both Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in psychology from Mt. San Antonio College and UC Berkeley, respectively, as well as a Master of Social Work from Columbia University.

Mark Kantrowitz is an expert on student financial aid and has been quoted in more than 10,000 newspaper and magazine articles about college admissions and financial aid. Mark has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, MarketWatch, Money magazine, Forbes, Newsweek, and Time. Mark is the author of five bestselling books about scholarships and financial aid and holds eight patents. Mark serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid, the editorial advisory board of Bottom Line/Personal, and the Bankrate Financial Review Board and is a member of the board of trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education. He was named a Fellow of the National Scholarship Providers Association. Mark has bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

We sat down with Michelle Snyder, whose experience with budgeting spans the personal and the professional, to talk about some specific tips for college students on a budget. After graduating from The College of New Jersey with a multidisciplinary BA in interactive multimedia and theater and drama, Michelle moved to London, England, where she currently works as an events and theatre hires manager for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and regularly works with budgeting on the job.

In order to gain some insider tips on this topic, we reached out to an expert. Meet Milladge E. Griffin — a philanthropist and expert in financial aid, scholarships, and strategic college planning who works at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY. We asked him a series of questions about financial aid for online college students. Here are his responses:

Monica McHale-Small, PhD, is the director of education for the Learning Disabilities Association of America and an adjunct associate professor of school psychology at Temple University. She is the parent of four adult children with learning and attention difficulties who successfully navigated the transitions to college and career.

Patricia Donat serves as Senior Vice President for the Southern Association of College and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the southern United States, whose mission is to assure the educational quality and improve the effectiveness of its member institutions. SACSCOC accepts applications for membership from all 50 states, as well as international institutions of higher education around the world.

Prior to her service as SACSCOC Senior Vice President, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of North Georgia (UNG). During her tenure at UNG, the institution expanded its academic programs and its discipline-specific program accreditations, secured approval for a level change to doctoral granting status, received Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement, and consolidated two state institutions within the University System of Georgia to become a regional multi-campus institution of approximately 16, 000 students.

Dr. Donat’s professional service included the Presidency of the Southeastern Psychological Association and her service as a Board member of the SACSCOC Board of Trustees. Her community engagement included her service as President of the Dahlonega Rotary Club and as a Board member of the Little Village Montessori School.

President of Beta Omega Beta, or BOB, at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. BOB is a non-Greek social sisterhood with the mission to offer an organization which allows anyone who is not a cisgender man to fit into a group without fostering elitism or exclusivity. BOB aims to offer fellowship and fun while eliminating the posturing, conformity, and peer pressures of fitting in that can be prevalent in Greek organizations. She is transgender and pansexual and loves to support her community in any way that she can.