Ask the Experts Bios:

Jeff Fallon: 
Jeff Fallon has his own college planning and consulting practice (Fallon and Associates) based in Phoenix, Arizona. The practice’s major emphasis is assisting student-athletes through the collegiate admissions and recruiting process.

Jeff has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and played two sports for an NCAA member institution in college. In 1989, at age 23, he was the youngest head basketball coach in the nation. Jeff was also an assistant baseball coach at the college level and in charge of recruiting. He is extremely well versed in the goings-on of student-athlete recruitment.

Jeff feels there is a great need for someone to take a leadership role and bring qualified student-athletes and the right college together. Having been a student-athlete, collegiate coach, and now father, he knows the frustrations felt by everyone involved.

Over the past ten years, Jeff has assisted more than 500 families from 30 different states through the recruiting process. This guidance has introduced the student-athlete to the best college and situation for them based on a variety of factors. Jeff is extremely passionate about his profession and encourages each family and coach to be very proactive and take the time to learn as much as possible about each other to create a perfect match.

Please visit Jeff’s Web site at www.JeffFallon.com.

Andrew Flagel: 
Andrew Flagel is the Dean of Admissions at George Mason University. Previously, he was the Director of Admissions and College Counseling for the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. He still sits on the Congressional Youth Leadership Council Advisory Board and is the author of this year's featured piece on financial aid for Achieve! magazine.

He has previously served as expert panelist for a national bulletin board targeting the top student leaders in the U.S., sponsored by the Youth Leadership Council, and as Assistant Director of Admissions at The George Washington University.

David J. Hamilton:
David J. Hamilton is director of college counseling at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Wheaton, MD. Previously he worked at the University of Delaware as an Associate Director of Admissions. He received his B.A. in History from Allegheny College and an M.A. in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Kimberly Hardy: 
Kimberly Hardy is a Clinical School Social Worker at a college preparatory charter high school on Chicago's west side preparing at-risk minority students for the rigors of college. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in social work from Morgan State University, an HBCU in Baltimore, MD, and her Master of Science degree in social work from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

Her areas of expertise are in helping low-income and/or at risk minority students manage the college process and helping parents of those students understand the process. This covers everything from how to research schools, complete the applications, choose majors, pay for school, and make the transition from a typically adverse high school career to college life.

She is also an expert on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and college social life. A member of several honor societies and teams and still a very active member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Kimberly believes strongly that college is "far more than books" and often speaks to students about the extracurricular life on campuses.

James Maroney: 
James Maroney graduated from Yale University in 1996 with a BA in economics. A native of Milford, CT, and a graduate of Jonathan Law High School, he lettered in cross-country and indoor and outdoor track and field as a distance runner, captaining the indoor and outdoor track and field teams in his senior year at Yale. Upon graduation, James went to work in New York City, where he worked as an equities trader for a year and a half. 

In February of 1999 he co-founded First Choice College Placement, an educational consulting firm offering extensive consultation to college-bound students and their families on college selection, admissions, financial aid, and athletic placement. James visited over 60 universities in the past year, speaking with admissions officers, touring campuses, talking to financial aid officers, and meeting with varsity coaches. For more information about him, you can visit James' Web site (www.firstchoicecollege.com).

Steve Mastronardi: 
Steve Mastronardi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Counseling and Religious Studies from Practical Bible College and a Master's in Counselor Education from Marywood University. He is a school counselor in Elmira, NY at Elmira Southside High School.
Steve also works at Catholic Charities of Broome County as a crisis counselor for at-risk teenage boys and Family Services of Chemung County as a mental health counselor for adolescents. He is a member of the American Counseling Association, American School Counselors Association, New York Counselors Association, and the Chemung Counselors Association. His special interests include coaching soccer, spending time with his wife, and being an active part of his students' lives on a daily basis.

Chuck Schaeffer: 
Chuck Schaeffer has been a guidance counselor for 27 years at Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School, serving a suburban community in central Pennsylvania. His professional membership includes local, state, and national associations.

Typically, his work involves career and college planning with the 83 percent of his school’s students pursuing post secondary education. Chuck has been married to an elementary teacher for 30 years and raised and educated three sons, so he’s been there as a parent as well as a counselor.


Raymond Tobaygo: 
Raymond Tobaygo is a consultant and advisor for Devon White, Inc., which he founded in 1996. Since opening Devon White, Inc., Raymond Tobaygo has assisted over 500 families in every aspect of the undergraduate/graduate school search, including admissions, financial aid, free grant and scholarship searches, and selection of major and career. (Twenty-six services in all.)

Since 1996 his client base has expanded from 35 to over 100-with new services including working as an advisor for US News and World's Report's EDU Answer Forums, as in- and out-of-school resource for High School Guidance Departments, and as a lecture circuit speaker.

His service areas focus on undergraduate/graduate domestic and international students, institutional searches, matches, admission interviews, campus tours, essay critiques, financial aid, financial aid award appeals, loan options, payment scenarios, and minimizing student debt upon graduation.

The remaining areas targeted for expansion during the upcoming months include incorporating a thorough knowledge of state, federal, and institutional rules and regulations, providing guidance and assistance for international students to study in the United States, exploring alternate means of financing a post secondary education, and reducing student debt upon graduation.

Jack Tonk:
Jack Tonk has more than a quarter-century of professional guidance counseling experience. He's currently providing counseling at an urban high school and living in the community the high school serves. The school population is about one-third from indigent families, one-fourth to one-third from professional families, and the balance from blue-collar, skilled-worker families. Jack was born and raised in northwest Indiana and graduated from Purdue University.

Martha Wiseman:
Martha Wiseman became a guidance counselor in 1979 after seven years as an English teacher. She has always worked in large, suburban highs schools in metropolitan Chicago. She has counseled students from affluent as well as disadvantaged backgrounds and from varied ethnic backgrounds. Most of her years as a counselor, she was also an administrator, department chair for Guidance and Special Education, and Student Personnel Services Director. The Internet has revolutionized her professional life. She maintains a general interest Web page for counselors and their students at: 
http://www3.dist214.k12.il.us/guidance/index.html as well as pages that pertain more specifically to Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park where she currently works at:
http://www.d230.org/cs/wiseman/

Her other area of interest is travel. She took groups of high school students on trips overseas for twelve summers, with itineraries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. This has lead to an expertise in working with foreign and limited English students. As Martha nears retirement age she empathizes more than ever with her students who can't decide what they want to be when they grow up.

Sally Wood
Sally Wood is a freelance writer and editor from Marionville, Missouri. She worked as a high school counselor in the Aurora R-VIII School District in Aurora, Missouri, from 1980-2000.