Executive Director, Dr Elizabeth Stone has been called “an expert in her field” by Dean Douglas Christiansen of Vanderbilt University. As author of the book, The Better College Essay:  Fitting In and Standing Out, Dr. Stone is considered a national leader in the field of college essay writing. Her newest book, The Better College Essay: From Start to Finish (co-authored with Meredith Charlson) was published in May 2021 by City Limits Publishing with a foreword written by Jonathan B. Williams, Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions at New York University. Dr. Stone speaks at national conferences and training programs including the Independent Educational Consultants Association. She taught several terms inthe UC Berkeley, Extension Certificate Program in College Admissions and Career Planning.  

Director of Speaking and Communication:  Dr. Doria Charlson earned her PhD at Brown University in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. At Campanile, Dr. Charlson coaches Campanile students for admission and scholarship interviews and meetings with professors. Dr. Charlson is a Visiting Professor at UC Davis in the Department of Theatre & Dance and teaches in the Executive Master’s Degree program at Brown University where she also taught Brown undergraduate courses in Persuasive Communication. In 2022-2023, Dr. Charlson taught at Northeastern University at Mills College in the Department of Communications. Dr. Charlson provides group and individual public speaking coaching to business executives, clergy, and political candidates and at Wellesley College at the Madeline Albright Institute. She has been a Research Fellow at Mills College and has taught in the MFA program in Dance was a lecturer at University of California, San Diego in the Department of Theatre & Dance.  Dr. Charlson has a BA in History from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Strasbourg, France in addition to receiving two Master's degrees from Brown.  In 2018, Dr. Charlson received the Archambault Award for Excellence in Teaching, School of Professional Studies at Brown University. In addition to her teaching and research, Dr. Charlson is a staff Chaplain at Marin Health and has a Certificate in Interfaith Chaplaincy from the Graduate Theological Union. She completed her chaplaincy residency at UCSF Hospital.

Director of Writing:  Meredith Charlson Donato graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford with a BA in Comparative Literature and a minor in Theater and Performance Studies.  Meredith has taught college essay writing to faculty in UC Berkeley’s International Pre-College Program and essay writing in UC Berkeley’s Extension Certificate Program in College Admissions and Career Counseling. At Stanford, Meredith supported both undergraduates and graduate students at the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking and was on staff of the Stanford Collegiate Summer Institute for high school students.  She is on the faculty for acting and choreography in the ACT Young Conservatory and has taught at the College of San Mateo. She has contributed her writing to three books, The Better College Essay:  Fitting In and Standing Out (Wintergreen Orchard House) and The Better College Essay: From Start to Finish (City Limits Publishing) - co-author and Helping Students With Disabilities Develop Social Skills, Academic Language and Literacy Through Stories (Charles C. Thomas).  She recently was published in The SDC Journal of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Photo credit: Matthew R. Donato