Meet Our Team

Daniel Mark is a Lead Counselor at Mentor Path. Before joining the team, he worked as a college admissions officer for five years, most recently as a Senior Admission Officer at Brown University. During his time in admissions, he reviewed 5,000+ applications and served on the selection committees for programs such as QuestBridge and the Posse Foundation. He also coordinated campus fly-in programs specifically for underrepresented students, helping expand access to selective colleges.

Daniel enjoys counseling because he personally knows how transformative this guidance can be. He comes from a low-income family in The Bronx, where neither of his parents had deep insight into the college application process. He received guidance through his college access organization, Harlem Lacrosse, which helped him and his family navigate the college admissions journey and enroll at Connecticut College. He is now passionate about supporting other students who are navigating similar experiences.

Since joining Mentor Path, Daniel’s students have been admitted to schools such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Emory University, Northeastern University, and others.

Ben is a Lead Counselor with Mentor Path and also brings the perspective of a first-generation college applicant and student. He began his career at his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, where he worked as an admissions officer supporting many first-generation and low-income applicants across the Southeast region of the United States. During this time, he also began working closely with international students from regions including Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—many of whom had limited knowledge of the U.S. college application process.

Following his time at Vanderbilt, Ben joined the admissions office at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he continued his commitment to expanding access for students interested in top research programs. During this time, Ben read over 10,000 applications and led more than 100 workshops designed to break down the college admissions and financial aid process for students and their families—again focusing on first-generation communities both in the U.S. and internationally. He has partnered with global organizations such as EducationUSA and the International Association for College Admission Counseling to develop new resources and mentorship opportunities for families around the world. He has also led case study exercises and workshops for U.S.-based organizations, including QuestBridge, National Hispanic Institute, Breakthrough Collaborative, TRiO Upward Bound, and many others, focused on helping students navigate the college application process for the first time.

Since joining Mentor Path, Ben’s students have been accepted to schools such as Dartmouth College, Clarkson University, Fordham University, Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University, Purdue University, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, University of Toronto, Santa Clara University, and more.

As a Lead Counselor with Mentor Path, Denard brings over 20 years of experience in higher education and counseling. He has worked with a diverse range of students, consistently offering perspective, knowledge, and humor throughout the career development, personal growth, and application processes. Denard prides himself on his ability to easily build rapport, establishing a foundation of trust that empowers students to move forward with confidence.

Denard brings a wealth of experience in admissions and college counseling. He began his career in university admissions, serving as an Associate Director of Admissions at Elon University and Saint Joseph’s University and directing a high school college summer program at Duke University. For the past eight years, he has excelled as a college counselor at two distinguished independent high schools and with Empowerly. Denard has successfully guided hundreds of students across diverse fields, including STEM, AI/Computer Science, Business, and the Humanities, to gain acceptance to highly selective universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown, Duke, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Rice, UIUC, and Georgetown.

Joyana is a College Admissions Counselor with Mentor Path. Previously, she worked as an Advising Fellow and was on the program design team for Matriculate, an organization that supports first-generation and low-income students throughout their college application process and beyond. She also has experience as a UCLA admissions reader and Alumni Scholarship evaluator, with extensive training in FAFSA and other financial aid applications. She holds a BA/BS in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from UCLA.

Joyana is passionate about providing college application guidance to students who may not receive personalized college counseling elsewhere, and she loved working directly with FGLI applicants during her time with Matriculate. Her favorite part of the process is seeing students not only be accepted to their dream schools but also receive the scholarships that enable them to attend. She is an expert in breaking down the college admissions process to parents and families.

During her time with Mentor Path, her students have been accepted to Columbia, Brown, UNC Chapel Hill, Michigan, UIUC, Purdue, all the UCs, and more.

Cassidy has worked as a college admissions officer for 6+ years at Bates College, Smith College, and the University of California, San Diego. Before joining Mentor Path, she most recently served as the Assistant Director of International Admissions at Smith College and was a key member of the team that supported first-generation, low-income, international, and underrepresented students on campus. She organized programs dedicated to helping students transition to college, coordinated fly-in programs, supported institutional partnerships with community-based organizations like Matriculate, ROCA, Cristo Rey Charter Schools, and Bridge2Rwanda, and expanded access to highly selective colleges via her recruiting and programming efforts. As an admissions officer, Cassidy has reviewed more than 10,000 applications and been a part of 500+ admissions decision-making committee conversations. Cassidy is passionate about educational access and hopes to ensure every student has the support to achieve their dreams in the college process and beyond. She is fluent in Spanish and loves to work with multilingual students and families as they navigate the college process. 

Cassidy received her BA in European Studies with minors in Spanish and Religious Studies. She also holds an MS in International Business from the University of Delaware, Lerner College of Business. 

Since joining Mentor Path, Cassidy’s students have been accepted to schools including The University of Pennsylvania (M&T Program), NYU, Virginia Tech, UT Austin, The University of Michigan, Tufts University, and more.