About Michele Hernández, Mimi Doe & Our Team

Dr. Michele Hernández and Mimi Doe cofounded Application Boot Camp® LLC after publishing their best-selling book, Don’t Worry: You’ll Get In in 2005. Application Boot Camp® LLC is a company devoted to empowering high school students from around the world in the college admissions process.


Mimi Doe is the award-winning author of Nurturing Your Teenager’s Soul: A Practical Approach to Raising a Kind, Honorable, Compassionate Teen, Busy but Balanced: Practical and Inspirational Ways to Create a Calmer, Closer Family, and 10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting: Nurturing Your Child’s Soul, which was awarded a Parents’ Choice Approved Seal and was a finalist in the Books For a Better Life Award. Mimi and Michele coauthored Don’t Worry You’ll Get In!, Set Yourself Apart: The Ultimate Guide to Top Summer Programs, and Application Boot Camp: Self Guided Program. They also cofounded Application Boot Camps® which have gained international attention and were featured in the New York Times as well as BusinessWeek magazine.

Doe holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University. Dubbed a “parenting guru” by Ladies Home Journal, Mimi is the preeminent expert in the area of instilling balance and awareness in the household. Doe was featured in weekly segments on The Hallmark Channel’s New Morning TV for a number of years and has appeared on Oprah and the CBS Early Show as well as other national media Her work has been covered in such publications as Child, Parenting, McCall’s, Family Circle, Redbook, Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, USA Today, The London Independent, Forbes, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.

Mimi is an advocate for children and teenagers and believes that in the college admissions process, knowledge is power. Her work writing, Don’t Worry: You’ll Get In with Michele and co-founding Application Boot Camps® is in an effort to lessen the stress associated with this frantic process. It is her mission to make applications and admissions less stressful by fully informing kids as well as supporting them in presenting their true selves.

She lives in Concord, Massachusetts with her husband. Her two daughters are successful college graduates having experienced Application Boot Camp in their own college admissions journeys.



Dr. Michele Hernández is known as America’s premier college consultant through her work with high school students and her best selling books: A is for Admission (Warner), The Middle School Years (Warner) and Acing the College Application (Ballantine).

Hernández has been featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs including Newsweek, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Atlantic Monthly, The Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC and she is an ongoing contributor to The Huffington Post. As an assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College for four years and the academic dean of a private high school in South Florida, Hernández has crafted a unique angle for assisting students gain admission to the most selective colleges, incorporating her “inside perspective” on the admissions adventure. Dr. Hernández graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1989 and went on to earn a Master’s degree in English and Comparative literature from Columbia University and a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from Nova Southeastern. She is married to Bruce Bayliss, former headmaster of the International School in Portland, Oregon. They have two children, ages 15 and 9, three golden retrievers and a gordon setter. In her non-existent spare time, Hernández enjoys stargazing with her 16 ½ inch Dobsonian telescope, working out and reading obsessively. The family lives in Weybridge, Vermont.


Dr. Kristen Willmott
Director

Having worked as an Admissions and Financial Aid Officer for Harvard University for four years, Kristen brings a depth of experience to Application Boot Camp. Kristen has a PhD in Education with a specialty in Higher Education from the University of Rochester. Kristen also has a Masters degree in Business Service Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and earned a BA in English from Ithaca College. She has experience with students of all ages, having been previously employed as a K-12 substitute teacher at the Canandaigua City School District, a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence located in upstate New York, and working as Assistant to the Director of Graduate Programs at RIT. Kristen has experience teaching at the college level at Newbury College in Brookline, MA, SUNY Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, NY, and the Harvard University Extension School in Cambridge, MA. Kristen brings a range of research and educational field experience to Application Boot Camp having been employed as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Rochester from 2009-2012 where she studied, published on (and continues to research) topics including: academic leadership and entrepreneurship, student and faculty work-life-family stability, and underrepresented college student recruitment, transition, and retention. She lives in Framingham, MA with her husband and their chocolate lab puppy.


Kim McLeod
Information Research Specialist
Kim’s focus is on managing and disseminating data through the website, newsletter and various Boot Camp products. Previously she worked for Mercer Management/Oliver Wyman as a Business Analyst. She also has many years of experience developing and maintaining information systems for large Fortune 500 companies including GE.


Steve Dulan
ACT, SAT, and SAT Subject Test Tutor
Steven W. Dulan, J.D., has been involved with standardized test preparation since 1989, when, as a former U.S. Army infantry sergeant and undergraduate student at Michigan State University, Steve became an ACT and SAT instructor. Thousands of students have benefited from Steve’s coaching. Steve’s students have gained admission to some of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world, and have received numerous scholarships of their own. Since 1997, Steve has tutored students. In 2005, he was selected to author McGraw-Hill’s ACT books, which have been top-sellers at bookstores nationwide ever since. Steve joined the team at Application Boot Camp in 2007.


Amy Dulan
ACT, SAT, and SAT Subject Test Tutor
After receiving a Psychology degree from Michigan State University in 1991, Amy Dulan put her analytical skills and nurturing personality to work as an ACT and SAT coach. Amy has worked with thousands of high school students in both a private and classroom setting, helping them to maximize their ACT and SAT scores. Her sense of humor and down-to-earth style allow Amy to connect with her students and make learning fun. She worked with Steve to author McGraw-Hill’s ACT books, which have been top-sellers at bookstores nationwide ever since. Amy joined the team at Application Boot Camp in 2007.


David Vincent Kimel
Speech and Debate Coach
David Vincent Kimel boasts over a decade and a half of expertise in speech and debate at both the high school and college levels. In the realm of speech, David has adjudicated several outrounds of Humorous and Dramatic Interpretation and has directed plays at both Yale and Harvard. A former Lincoln Douglass high school champion in Connecticut, David went on to win the title of top ranked debater in the United States while at Harvard on the collegiate Parliamentary circuit in 2005. A two-time semi-finalist at the North American Championships, David has been profiled by CNN and is currently the head coach of the Yale Debate Association, which is currently ranked number one in the world. Graduating Harvard Summa Cum Laude and currently completing a doctoral degree at Yale, David runs a company called Imperial Publishing that teaches speech, debate, and ESL skills to students in Asia.


Scott Lichtenstein
Speech and Debate Coach
Scott Lichtenstein has participated in speech and debate events around the world as a speaker, judge, and coach. His debate career began in high school with Policy Debate in California and he twice qualified for the NFL National Championships. He went on to become president of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society and graduated from Harvard with a degree in chemistry. While in college, he became friends with David Kimel and the two founded Imperial Publishing after graduation to teach speech, debate, and ESL skills to students in Asia. Currently residing in Seoul, South Korea, Scott has attended speech and debate events across North America, Europe, and Asia.


Brian Feldman
Lead Senior Counselor
Brian graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis where he studied Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, Classics, and Creative Writing. He grew up in Rhode Island and spent his summers working as the lead senior counselor for Application Boot Camp and as an educator at the Farm School, a sustainable agriculture program. In addition to studying abroad in Athens, Greece and at the University of Oxford, Brian has worked as a research assistant in three psychology labs, has conducted a study on infants’ social preferences, and has authored an Ancient Greek exercise manual. Brian was recently named a Venture for America fellow and also works for Monarch Teaching Technologies, a software company that creates online applications for autistic learners.


Janie Abernethy
Senior Counselor
A graduate of Dartmouth, Janie majored in Hispanic Studies and Cognitive Science. She has worked for the Investigative Unit at the CBS Evening News in New York as well as Argentina’s Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a women’s activist group focusing on maintaining the history of the effects of the country’s military dictatorship. Four years ago, she conducted research for a local historian whose book Into Dust and Fire: Five Young Americans Who Went First to Fight the Nazi Army was published in April 2012. In addition to being a Senior Counselor for Application Boot Camp, Janie also currently works completely in Spanish for the Inter-American Development Bank as a consultant for their new MapAmericas media program.


Liz Doe
Senior Counselor
Liz Doe attended Dartmouth College where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with High Honors and was granted the William B. Jaffe Award for excellence in Art History. Liz wrote her honors thesis on John Singer Sargent’s early figural paintings and his engagement with a changing discourse of the “exotic.” She is currently earning her PhD in Art History at the University of Virginia with a concentration in 19th century European painting. At Dartmouth, Liz served as Editor-in-Chief of the Collegiate Journal of Art and a Teaching Assistant for the Art History department. She has conducted art historical research in Paris and Rome and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.


Martin House
Senior Counselor
Martin is currently pursuing an M.A. in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In addition to being a Senior Counselor for Application Boot Camp, Martin is also a writer and political analyst for a nuclear non-proliferation organization based in New York. His work and projects have been covered by the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Financial Times. Martin graduated from the University of St. Andrews with a Scottish Masters with Honors in International Relations, where he concentrated on the work of political scientists J.K. Holsti and Graham Allison and was an active member of the Foreign Affairs Society.


Rohail Premjee
Senior Counselor
A senior at Dartmouth College, Rohail is a double major in Government and Philosophy. Rohail previously interned for the Project on Government Oversight where he researched financial regulation and defense contracting policy. In addition to studying abroad at the London School of Economics, he has previously worked as a Politics & Law Research Fellow in the Dartmouth Government Department. In addition to being a Senior Counselor at Application Boot Camp, Rohail is currently a Curricular and Research Program Assistant at the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.


Hannah Smith-Drelich
Senior Counselor
Hannah Smith-Drelich is a graduate of New York University with a Master’s in Food Studies. As a freelance writer in New York City, she has published work in both popular and academic outlets, such as Serious Eats, The Daily Meal, Stylus, and the Springer Encyclopedia for Food and Agriculture. Hannah graduated from Williams College with honors in English, where she played clarinet in the Berkshire Symphony and participated in theater productions ranging from Shakespeare to improv to a Gogol play performed on roller blades. In addition to being a Senior Counselor for Application Boot Camp, Hannah works as a research assistant at the Museum of Food and Drink. In fall 2013, Hannah will begin her studies at McGill University in Montreal as a Master’s student and Research Assistant in English, continuing on to a PhD program in English.


Emily Wilson
Senior Counselor
Emily Wilson attended the University of Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction and was Phi Beta Kappa. She was awarded Highest Honors for her thesis in English and Religion on Thomas Mann, which also earned the Virginia Voss Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Writing and the Wagner Award for Outstanding 2009 Thesis. During her undergraduate studies, she taught writing to 7th grade students in Oakland, CA, and also interned with the Deputy Mayor for Education in Washington, DC. After graduating from UMichigan, Emily became an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer based in Baltimore, where she worked in a K-8 school to strengthen partnerships between the school and the local neighborhood. In the following years, Emily developed and taught a Job Skills course in an alternative middle school and ran an internship program for her students with local businesses. Emily has also worked as a Case Manager for adults with developmental disabilities at Riverside Community Care based in Massachusetts. Emily is currently studying at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA in their Prevention Science and Practice program, working towards licensure in school adjustment counseling. She has recently held internships at Cambridgeport Elementary School and Boston Arts Academy in Massachusetts.