The Team
Felicia Fahey, PhD, is the founder of Fahey Associates, a bespoke college consulting firm based in California. Over the past 18 years, she has developed a distinctive advising method that blends her own academic expertise with insights from a wide network of professionals—including admissions advisors from Stanford, the University of California, and UPenn’s Jerome Fisher Program, MIT alumni, Apple UX veterans, and a team of poets and fiction writers, including creatives from the Stanford Storytelling Project and Disney. She has built and trained a team of progressive educators who reflect the firm’s core values and work to support students of all backgrounds—athletes, artists, high achievers, including those who have faced medical, learning, or socioeconomic challenges.
Felicia earned her PhD in Latin American literature and spent over a decade teaching at institutions such as UC Santa Cruz, the University of San Francisco, and Bates College. Her scholarly work on trauma and diaspora culminated in the publication of The Will to Heal: Psychological Recovery in the Novels of Latina Writers (University of New Mexico Press, 2007), which explores how six Latina authors blend autobiography and fiction to depict psychological healing. She also served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University, further contributing to academic discussions on Latin American literature and its global implications.
Committed to educational equity, Fahey Associates provides pro-bono support to underserved students and offers outreach and training to libraries, school counseling departments, and enrichment programs. The firm is recognized for its ethical practices and is a proud member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).
Our Counselors
Kate Givens has extensive experience working with teenagers in academic and extracurricular settings to discover their unique interests and achieve their goals. Kate has a B.A. in English from The George Washington University and a Masters in English Education from The University of Virginia and spent over a decade working with high school students teaching professional skills such as correspondence, resume development, and public speaking. Kate also held writing workshops for the Young Writers Organization to assist students in developing their writing skills. She has worked with hundreds of students to develop college plans and work on their application materials.
Lori has her B.A. in English Language and Literature and her Master of Teaching in English Education from the University of Virginia. She is a licensed high school English teacher with 9 years of experience across multiple grade levels. She taught Creative Writing and sponsored an award-winning literary magazine, The Shaman, at Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, Virginia. Lori also established a new AP Literature program as a founding member of Charles J. Colgan Senior High School, a performing arts school in Manassas, Virginia. She has comprehensive knowledge of numerous aspects of the college application process from essay writing to SAT and ACT administration. Lori excels at relationship building and uses her sense of humor and candor to help students craft their unique story.
Our Creativity: Writing Advisors
In our many years of advising, Fahey Associates has observed that the majority of students are lacking the skills to elaborate a compelling narrative about their own person. With an average of 30 personal statements to write, students entering the application process must quickly learn how to tell a compelling story about themselves. To handle this challenge we’ve enrolled talented, creative writers to guide the delicate process of combining story-telling and self-reflective essay writing.
Megan Levad is the author of Why We Live in the Dark Ages and What Have I to Say to You. A MacDowell Fellow, her poems have appeared in Tin House, San Francisco Chronicle, Poem-a-Day, Granta, Fence, and the Everyman’s Library anthology Killer Verse. Megan also writes lyrics and libretti; When There Are Nine, a song cycle about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg composed by Kristin Kuster, recently debuted at the Cabrillo Festival in the Summer of 2019, where Megan was the Writer-in-Residence.
Maddie Orenstein (she/they) graduated with a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University and an M.A. from Stanford University in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies. Maddie is a passionate advocate for youth voice. She has over 12 years of college counseling experience in several types of high schools and in summer leadership programs. She was also an Honors Thesis English Instructor for seniors for three years. Additionally, she supported high school student leaders and wrote research on the importance of youth leadership as a Fulbright Scholar living in Santiago, Chile. She brings her vast experience and love for the beauty of writing as a tool to help students share what’s important to them.
Susanna earned her BA in English and Anthropology from Columbia University. Her MFA in creative writing comes from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of two widely published, award-winning novels, Stiltsville and Sea Creatures with HarperCollins. She has placed numerous essays and stories in literary magazines such as Slate and Newsweek. She is the co-owner of the Madison Writers’ Workshop where she coaches writers toward greater meaning, sense, and clarity.
Vivienne has been a professional writer and actress for twenty years. She has worked in television, film and the theatre, touring through Asia, Europe and the U.S. A graduate of the highly regarded acting school, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, she now lives in Los Angeles. Her latest play, This is Where We Live, won The Griffin Theatre Award and had a full season at the Griffin Theatre, Hothouse Theatre, South Australian Theatre Company and has since been performed in Toronto, New York and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As a television writer, she has worked with Hulu, Stan (Australia) and Disney+. She is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
Dana has her B.A. in English and her Master of Teaching in Secondary Education from James Madison University and is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in English at George Mason University. She is a licensed high school English teacher with 7 years of experience and a founding faculty member at Lightridge High School in Aldie, Virginia, where she currently teaches Honors English 11 and peer mentorship classes. Known for her innovative approach to teaching writing, Dana created and co-led a county-wide teacher workshop titled What Beyoncé Can Teach Us About Strong Writing and was also selected to present at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, where she was part of a panel headed by Dr. Kristina Doubet on using digital platforms like Goodreads to deepen student engagement and elevate writing instruction. This year, Dana will be enrolled in the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project—part of the National Writing Project network—where she will collaborate with top educators across disciplines to refine and share best practices in the teaching of writing. Dana looks forward to using her expertise to help students write personal statements that highlight their strengths and passions.
Angelica Bland graduated summa cum laude from James Madison University with her B.A. in English and her Masters of Arts in Teaching. She is a licensed teacher who has spent the last 8 years teaching English at Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School in Manassas, VA. Her primary focus for the last few years has been on juniors, both in standard-level and in AP Language and Composition classes; she is currently lead of the AP Lang team at Colgan. Her AP students consistently achieve % 3-or-higher rates well above the global averages on the AP exam. Recently, she spearheaded the Reading and Writing portion of the school’s SAT Prep program and was selected to score this year’s AP Lang exams. Angelica’s years of experience with this age group have given her great perspective on the college application journey, and she is committed to using this experience to help even more students find their voice, hone their skills, and continue on the path to success.
