Ben is the former Assistant Director of Admissions at Vanderbilt University, former Admissions Officer at University of Mary Washington, and was a Resident Director of the 2018 Harvard Pre-College Program.

Ben has a deep understanding of elite admissions, having reviewed 20,000+ applications, presented files to the admissions committee, and selected students for top merit scholarships. At Harvard, he facilitates admissions workshops for 500+ high-achieving high school students. Ben understands the critical importance of the written components of an application, which are often the difference between a deny and an admit.

Carolyn is a former admission officer at Middlebury College, where she read thousands of applications and served as a voting member of the admissions committee. At Middlebury, Carolyn read applications from athletes, international students, and students at top public and private schools nationwide–including Phillips Exeter, The Lawrenceville School, and those in the San Francisco Bay Area. She understands highly selective admissions and the unique pressures and competitions that students face.

At Sierra, Carolyn leads our school research efforts—focusing on the priorities and programs at the top thirty most popular schools among our clients, with a focus on STEM and business. She combines deep admissions data knowledge with her writing instruction background to help students position their strongest applications. 

Michelle spent seven years in the UC Berkeley undergraduate admissions office, where she reviewed general undergraduate applications and served as 1 of just 4 readers for the highly selective M.E.T. business-engineering dual-degree program. She understands what actually stands out to admission officers at the nation’s most competitive schools.

Prior to joining Sierra Admissions, Michelle worked in higher education and consulting roles at Vanderbilt, Georgetown, and Washington University in St. Louis. Drawing on her experience in admissions, advising, and consulting, she helps Sierra students craft authentic application narratives that highlight academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, and strong community fit at highly selective colleges.

Kylie Kistner has helped thousands of high school and college students become stronger, more compelling writers. A writer herself, Kylie co-created a writing handbook adopted across more than 200 undergraduate writing courses. At Sierra, she helps STEM students ground their work in the humanities and social sciences, bringing interdisciplinary depth to their applications.

Roger Li is a Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Science grad and a math + CS teacher. Roger has prepped hundreds of high-achieving students from the Bay Area, helping them earn admission to Stanford, every Ivy, MIT, Caltech, and UChicago. He understands elite admissions and the psychology of testing.

Alex is special among the Sierra team in that he has no admissions officer background. But as founder, I guess that's his privilege! He loves helping others learn to write, and believe the written application is an act of strategic communication.