Staff | Pro Bono Support

Nina W. Marks, President
Having been an independent schoolteacher and administrator for 30 years, Nina Marks left the National Cathedral School ("NCS") in Washington, DC to found Marks Education in 2004, and Collegiate Directions, Inc. in 2005. After spending many years as an AP English teacher, Nina became NCS' Director of College Guidance in 1992. She wrote the National Cathedral School College Handbook, which was copyrighted and sold. During her tenure, she created and directed a nationally recognized college guidance program. In 2002, she assumed additional responsibilities as Assistant Head. (Read full bio)

Theresa O. Atta, Vice President
Theresa Atta became CDI's founding Executive Director in 2005 and was named Vice President in April 2011. Theresa's deep, personal commitment to social justice and issues of equal access in higher education derives from her own background. Her mother immigrated to the United States from Kenya with only a seventh-grade education, but she was determined that Theresa and her brothers would work hard and benefit from the learning opportunities she never had. With the assistance of the Washington-based Black Student Fund, Theresa
enrolled in the National Cathedral School in seventh grade and graduated as
the Senior Class President. (Read full bio)

Ana I. Hilton, Program Director
Ana Hilton joined CDI in 2007 after having worked at the College of Wooster in Ohio in the Dean of Students' office. While at Wooster, she served as a Resident Director for first-year housing. She coordinated New Student Orientation and established Summer Connect, a new student transition program. Ana also worked with a peer mentor program, which primarily focused on the support and retention of multi-ethnic students. (Read full bio)

Gregory Lewis, Counselor
Greg joined CDI in December 2010 after having worked at St. Bonaventure University in New York in the Admissions Office. While at SBU, he served as a Freshman Admissions Counselor where he directly recruited and guided high school students through the entire college admissions process. In addition, Greg served as the Admissions Liaison to Athletics at SBU where he helped to guide student-athletes of all 14 Division I teams through the college admission process in accordance with NCAA Division I compliance. (Read full bio)

Rachel Jones, Counselor
Rachel Jones joined CDI in August 2011 after graduating with her M.S. in Urban School Counseling from Johns Hopkins University in July 2011. As part of her studies, Rachel provided support to two Baltimore City Public Schools, including helping students with college applications and the financial aid process. Rachel graduated magna cum laude from West Virginia University in 2004 where she studied Family and Consumer Sciences and received her B.S. (Read full bio)

Kyle Semmel, Development and Communications Manager

Kyle Semmel joined the CDI team in 2011. Previously, he was the publication and communications manager of The Writer's Center (TWC) in Bethesda. His duties included developing marketing campaigns, writing and editing promotional materials, planning and steering programming (including long-term programming). He was the driving force behind TWC's Undiscovered Voices Scholarship, which provides one writer earning less than $25,000 annually the opportunity to take creative writing workshops at the Center for one year. (Read full bio)

Juliana Avery, Office & Outreach Coordinator
Prior to joining CDI in March 2010, Juliana Avery spent two years as the Administrative Assistant at Dana Press, the publishing branch of the Dana Foundation.  She graduated with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008, double majoring in Playwriting and History.  She originally is from Rockville, Maryland and proudly attended Montgomery County Public Schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Pro Bono services provided by Marks Education by the following:

Tutoring and Test Preparation

Nitin Sawhney, Director of Tutoring and Test Preparation
Nitin Sawhney has more than ten years of experience as a standardized test instructor. Before he started the Tutoring and Test Preparation division of Marks Education, he worked as a senior tutor and materials developer for the SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT at PrepMatters, Inc. He has also worked at Kaplan, Inc., and the USDA Graduate School. Nitin joined Marks Education in 2006. He teaches test preparation and study skills, and provides tutoring to CDI Scholars.

Daniel L. Bloss, Senior Tutor
Daniel Bloss has considerable tutoring experience at both the high school and college level, most recently as a private tutor specializing in high school academic tutoring. He joined Marks Education in December 2006 as a member of the Tutoring and Test Preparation division. He also offers test preparation and tutoring to CDI Scholars.

Jill E. Salisbury, Tutor
Jill Salisbury joined Marks Education in March 2008. She has considerable experience with students from the pre-kindergarten through the high school level, most recently as a Tutor and the Director of Sales at Score! Educational Centers (a division of Kaplan). She also offers test preparation and tutoring to Scholars in the Collegiate Directions, Inc. program.

Phillip Chang, Tutor
Phillip Chang was awarded a National Merit Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and graduated in three years with a degree in Computer Science. In March 2010, he joined Marks Education and CDI, where he follows the same three-part test preparation method as the rest of the tutoring team: Customized Test Planning, Targeted Skill Building, and Test Strategy.

Maureen R. Hamilton, Executive Assistant to the President
Born in Tanzania and educated in Kenya, Maureen Hamilton immigrated to Chicago with her family in the mid-1970s. She spent many years working at law firms in Chicago before taking time to raise her daughters, one of whom recently graduated from college and the other of whom will graduate in 2012.
Maureen joined Marks Education in July 2004 and serves as Nina Marks' Executive Assistant. She oversees the client enrollment as well as billing, and researches and updates data related to standardized testing.
Maureen also works pro bono with Collegiate Directions Inc., where she tracks
the donations, manages the acknowledgements, and helps to organize special
events.

Donna Deaton, Board Recording Secretary and Strategic Development Advisor
Donna Deaton joined the CDI team in November 2006 shortly after being hired as Case Manager for MARKSADR, a high-stakes mediation practice run by CDI Board Member, Jonathan Marks.  Donna led the team in the development of a grant proposal template and continues to pursue additional development research. Previously, she worked at The Dana Foundation, focusing on educational events and the Dana Press. Prior to that she worked at The Chronicle of Higher Education where, as the National Director of Display Advertising, she helped launch The Chronicle of Philanthropy.