Don't Go At It Alone Our Experts Can Help!

Expert advice and answers from industry insiders whenever you need it. We can help with all of your burning questions throughout the college planning and admissions journey.

Meet CAP's Expert Team

CAP’s college planning team includes financial aid and admissions experts, CFPs, CPAs, and thought leaders from around the country. With our 100+ years of college planning experience, we’ve seen it all and we’re here to help.

Click on the experts below to learn more about their background, specialties, and availability.

Why Meet With An Expert?

Planning, Saving, & Qualifying for More Aid

Building Your School List

FAFSA & CSS Profile

Appealing Awards

Finding
Scholarships

Paying the Bill

Borrowing Guidance

Matt Carpenter

Chief Revenue Officer College Aid Pro

Matt started his college planning career in 2005 after realizing both he and his parents had made some major mistakes in navigating the college admissions and financial aid processes.

It became Matt’s mission to show other families how to avoid making similar mistakes in one of the biggest investments of their life. Today, Matt is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities within the College Funding niche. Matt has successfully guided thousands of families through the college financial aid maze. As Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of College Aid Pro, Matt continues his mission to help every family find their affordable path to college.

Matt grew up in the Birthplace of American Independence, otherwise known as Ipswich, MA. He graduated from Stonehill College in 2004 after enjoying a great career in the classroom, much less so on the football field.

When he’s not busy saving families from the college loan crisis, Matt enjoys hanging out with his wife Rosey, their daughter Emma, and their lab Tommy. They reside in Beverly, MA.

Peg Keough

Director of Education College Aid Pro

Peg Keough is a college financial planner who specializes in working with parents who have college-bound high school kids. Through her guidance, parents take a proactive role in creating a comprehensive college funding plan to maximize financial aid and discounts on the cost of college.

Peg’s background in financial planning and investments, coupled with her expertise in college financial planning make her uniquely qualified to support families. She has also been through this process with her twin children, so she gets it. Peg is a recognized thought leader and frequent speaker at schools and organizations. She is a member of the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA), the Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling (PNACAC), and the National College Advocacy Group (NCAG). Peg holds degrees from Cornell University and Indiana University.

Chuck Bates

Financial Advisor Stegent Equity Advisors

Chuck Bates is a financial advisor and certified college financial consultant (CCFC) dedicated to helping families make sound financial decisions. Chuck has over 25 years of experience in the finance industry, including 16 years working at Bridgeway Capital Management, a multi-billion-dollar asset management company.

As a financial advisor, Chuck is passionate about helping families balance the high cost of college education with their long-term financial goals, such as saving for retirement. He understands that college can be one of the most significant expenses a family faces after taxes and their home, and his goal is to help families navigate this complex financial landscape. His expertise as a certified college financial consultant (CCFC) allows him to provide invaluable guidance on paying for college while also ensuring families are planning for their future financial security.

Bill Rabbitt

Director of Marketing College Aid Pro

Bill has been working with college bound families since 2007, guiding thousands of families through the college funding process . Bill’s passion for the college funding space came from personal experience as he witnessed his parents struggle to put 4 kids through college. Since then, he has dedicated his career to helping college bound families find their affordable path to college and continues to do so as Co-Founder and Director of Marketing at College Aid Pro.

Today, Bill is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities within the College Funding space. Bill has worked with a countless number of families from every demographic, as well as, dozens of organizations throughout the country.

Growing up in Bayonne, NJ Bill graduated from St. Peter’s Prep High School. He went on to play football at Stonehill College and graduated in 2005. He now resides in Westfield, NJ with his lovely wife Danielle and three children Liam, Claire, and Rory.

Matt Mulhern

College Funding Expert College Aid Pro

Matt has been working with college bound families for over a decade and has guided thousands of families through the college funding process successfully. Matt got his start back in 2012 with College Funding Services, a consulting firm with offices in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Since then, he has worked with all types of families throughout the country and is known as one of the most knowledgeable subject matter experts when it comes to college funding.

Matt has worked with College Aid Pro for the past 3 years. In addition to working with college bound families directly, he also speaks at hundreds of high schools each year providing free financial aid webinars.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Matt is One of four children and watched as his parents, both public school teachers, struggled to send four kids to college. Matt realized that his parents would have benefited greatly from the expertise of a professional. Helping families decrease their financial burdens while greatly reducing the stress and anxiety of the college process became Matt’s passion.

 Matt currently lives in Jersey City, NJ and is an avid NY Mets fan.

Dan Bisig

As the oldest of 4 kids, Dan knew that his parents didn’t have any money to pay for college so applying for every scholarship he could find and doing summer jobs became his funding solution. Fast forward to 1989, after graduating from college, Dan spent 25 years as a Financial Planner. But in 2005, he had a client approach him with a big problem. How were he and his wife going to pay for their 3 kids to go to college since they only had $5,000 in savings? That is when the light bulb went off because Dan knew exactly what they needed to do and how to integrate strategies and techniques every family could use – and his company College and Beyond was born.

Since 2006, Dan has helped hundreds of students and parents across the United States and Internationally as well navigate their way through every aspect of the college process. In his spare time, Dan co-authored a book: College Entrance Game Plan: Your Comprehensive Guide To Collecting, Organizing, and Funding College.

In 2022, Dan joined the College Aid Pro team to help promote what he believes is the best college funding software on the market. College Aid Pro combines award-mining technology with real time guidance from industry experts to show every student and family how to maximize financial aid, pick the right affordable colleges, and help students graduate with as little debt as possible.

 Dan is happily married with 2 grown kids, loves model railroading, is active in his church, and is a member of the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA), and the Kentucky Association for College Admission Counseling (KYACAC).

John Munley

College Funding Expert , CFP College Aid Pro

John began his career in finance as a currency trader after graduating from BucknellUniversity. After over 25 years at various Wall Street firms he co-founded wHealth Advisors, an independent financial planning firm in RedBank, NJ. 

While putting three daughters through college, John learned the nuances of the financial aid process. Realizing how dizzying this experience was even for someone with a finance background, John wondered how other parents were navigating this process. After taking on numerous pro-bono college funding projects for family and friends, John started seeing a common theme: small missteps were costing families thousands of dollars. Today, and in collaboration with the team of experts at College Aid Pro, John helps families optimize the school selection and funding process. 

He has four beautiful daughters who keep him and his wife very busy. In John’s spare time, he enjoys following his New York sports teams, getting together with his Bucknell fraternity brothers, and attempting to master the art of grilling.

Jim Femia

College Funding Expert College Aid Pro

Jim holds a B.A. from Villanova University and obtained additional education through Merrimack College. He is also a Certified College Funding Specialist (CCFS). Mr. Femia currently resides in Marblehead, MA.

Jim is also a Senior Financial Advisor at Apella Capital. Prior to joining Apella, Mr. Femia was a Senior Investment Consultant at Sentinel Financial Group. He has had roles at Cabot Money Management, Metropolitan Financial Services and Liberty Securities. He is an Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS) and a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) through the College for Financial Planning.

Ryan Callahan

Financial Aid Director Harvard Medical School

Ryan is a need analysis expert with more than fifteen years of Financial Aid experience and, currently, he works as the Director of Financial Aid at Harvard Medical School.

He began his career as an Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Boston College. While at BC, he received his Master’s Degree in Higher Education which brought him to MIT where he served as the Associate Director of Financial Aid.

Since dedicating most of his career to working in elite educational institutions, he understands financial aid’s importance in affording families with the opportunities of a private education. Aside from his time spent rooting for Boston sports’ teams, Ryan’s passion for helping students with financial aid began when he saw the effects it had on the students he advised for schools offering generous amount of need-based aid.

Josh DeMaio

Director of Consumer Solutions

Josh took his first job in higher education shortly after finishing his undergraduate degree from Boston College. Now a 20-year veteran in the industry, he has worked in a number of different roles helping students and parents understand their options when it comes to financing a college education. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Josh earned both his B.A. and M.B.A. from Boston College, as well as a second Master’s degree from UMass-Boston.

A certified Project Manager, he is currently working as the Director of Student Funding at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where his focus is on graduate students, after many years of working directly with undergraduate students and their families. Josh currently resides in Natick, MA with his wife, three sons, and two dogs. He enjoys watching and coaching basketball, and spending time with his family.

Rynda Wilk

Director of Consumer Solutions

Rynda is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™professional and Financial Coach helping families of high school students plan for college. Since earning an MBA from UT Chattanooga in 1999, she has worked in finance as an analyst, a planner and a coach.

Having worked with so many families struggling under the weight of student debt, she decided to specialize in the area of college planning to help similar families avoid that fate.

She is also the mother of two teenage boys going through her own college planning experiences who enjoys traveling with her husband, reading and Sunday morning bike rides.

Mike Hinderman

Director of the Scholarship Office University of Oklahoma

Mike is the Director of the Scholarship Office at the University of Oklahoma. Mike has worked at the University of Oklahoma since 2010. Prior to becoming the Director of Scholarships, he worked as the Director of the MoneyCoach program for five years. Prior to his role in the MoneyCoach program, he worked as an Academic Life Coach for seven years in the Sooner Success Program at OU. 

Mike has a passion and drive to help others learn and grow which is why he pursued a Master of Education in Adult and Higher Education at OU, which he received in December 2010. Mike is passionate about personal finance and specifically motivated to help serve students and families trying to make college affordable.  Mike also enjoys teaching and has taught classes at OU since fall 2011.  He currently teaches a personal finance course called 9 Things About College and Money. He enjoys working with students of all ages and is certified to teach Elementary, Middle School Math, and Intermediate Math in High School.

Jennifer Hartman

College Planning Expert College Aid Pro

Jennifer is a college advisor who specializes in the financial aspects of college admissions and helps families through the challenges financial planning. She takes a holistic approach to find solutions and develops individualized plans for each family as they navigate the college planning process, and often times putting college students on financial plan with budgets and sustainable and targeted short- and long-term goals. She is very passionate about financial literacy and helping families navigate the various financial options and strategies to pay for college.

Prior to her work as a College Advisor, Jennifer invested heavily in her community, starting a City Newsletter, elected to city council and on to three terms as mayor of one of America’s fastest growing cities. While City Councilwomen and Mayor, she also served on the chamber board, a multi-community board that supported surrounding communities’ commerce and educational growth, educational foundation, and wrote a grant securing funding to initiate city wide programs. As well, she spent several years lobbying at the local, state, and federal levels advocating greater protection and assisting in drafting legislation to protect her community from negative business practices that preyed on residents.

In addition to her community service, Jennifer founded and ran her marketing firm, developed a community newsletter, and homeschooled her children for a period of time due to medical needs. Jennifer also founded a 501C3 and grew a local festival into city event. Her passion for school and education grew from her desire to find better paths for each of her children and their individual needs, including navigating a medical diagnosis for one child and successfully advocating for their rights under the law.

Jennifer’s unique perspective and experience allows her to oversee strategies for academic success and coordinate the families’ financial needs and desires with the student services piece to help find the best fit college for the student and the family’s financial path. She is also interested in issues of disability, diversity, and mental health and recognizes the academic accomplishments of students with learning differences.

For Jennifer, the most rewarding part of her role is participating in parents’ extreme sense of accomplishment as a result of a mutually prepared roadmap to greater financial stability, allowing their kids to participate in an appropriate college experience, one of life’s biggest expenses. Jennifer has a Daughter heading into her Master’s Degree Program & twin high school aged boys and outside of the office, loves spending time with her husband and kids, visiting National Parks and Museums and both random and long adventurous road trips.

Melissa Mieyr headshot

Melissa Mieyr

College Planning Expert College Aid Pro

Credentials

  • Master of Education in School Counseling, and LPC Coursework
  • Master of Education in Educational Administration
  • Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Secondary Teaching Certificate

 

Professional Organizations

  • Higher Education Consultants Association
    • HECA Conference Co-Chair 2023
    • HECA Communications Committee 2020-2021
  • Independent Educational Consultants Association
    • IECA Affordability Committee 2021-Present, Chair 2023-2024, Vice Chair 2022-2023, 
  • Texas Association for College Admissions Counseling

 

Melissa Mieyr began her professional journey with a 24-years stint in the public-school sector, as an educator specializing in business, career, and technology. Throughout her career, she dedicated herself to helping students navigate their next stage in life. She holds certifications as both a school administrator and school counselor and spent 15 years supporting a high school counseling office with a focus on all things college related. Melissa worked tirelessly to educate students and parents about the college planning process. With a strong background in business, Melissa’s passion for the financial side of the college process was evident and has been a significant focus throughout her career.

Melissa is a college planning advisor who partners with families to help them attain their academic goals while maintaining the families’ financial stability. After spending much of her career helping students explore their academic and career options as an educator and certified school counselor, Melissa knows that these decisions that are made can truly have life changing outcomes. 

Melissa’s passion for education, organization, and personal financial freedom allows her to guide families through the college planning process while giving them peace of mind. She knows the importance of a good education while keeping your eyes on the goal of the future. By becoming an independent consultant in 2014, Melissa was able to further her passion by extending her ability to help not only the student in the college planning process but to assist parents in realizing the holistic approach needed to plan for college and not jeopardize their own future quality of life.

Melissa’s personal life is equally inspiring, having hosted 19 exchange students with her husband. Besides spending time with her family Melissa enjoys spending time outdoors tending to her flower garden, cooking, traveling, and watching football in the fall.

Laura Meek, FAAC®

College Financial Coach

Laura Meek is a current financial aid administrator at a small liberal arts college and has over 30 years of experience in higher education. She has served thousands of families during her career assisting them in their financial aid applications, navigating complex college forms, coaching with financial aid appeals, assisting with college scholarship searches, discovering student lending options and more!  She has presented for numerous high schools on financial aid, served as an expert on conference panels and has presented at state association conferences.

Laura is a 1994 graduate of Capital University with a Bachelor of Social Work, magna cum laude.  She pursued a helping profession and worked in her alma mater financial aid office as a student in her undergraduate studies.  She’s never left the financial aid industry since!  Her passion is educating and coaching students and their families during their college exploration and helping them form a solid financial plan for college.

She has served in financial aid roles within enrollment management at both public and private colleges.  She is a long standing member of the Ohio Association of Financial Aid Administrators (OASFAA) and has held multiple positions on their executive board.  She also earned the designation of Certified Financial Aid Administrator from the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and upholds the NASFAA Statement of Ethical Principles.

Laura lives in central Ohio with her husband, Tom and two teenage daughters, Elizabeth and Rebekah.

“The college search process isn’t complete without considering financial fit.  Families need to plan ahead for one of the largest investments they will have. I can help families develop or refine their plans, overcome barriers and discuss realistic expectations.  I’m proud to work with the David Academy and connect their passion with my own: “making students’ academic dreams come true.”

Brian Ford

Dean of College Advisement Archbishop Williams High School

Brian  is an expert college admissions professional with experience on both sides of the admissions cycle. 

As a member of admissions offices at schools including Bryant University and Boston University, Brian oversaw the recruitment, review and retention of prospective undergraduate students for close to 20 states over a seven year period. During his time, he read well over 60,000 college applications in some capacity. Brian then spent four years as the Director of College Counseling at Austin Preparatory School in Reading,Massachusetts, where he led the complete overhaul of the college office that now boasts a half year prep program, a full parent curriculum, and unique college representative involvement. He has presented at the New England Association of College Admissions Counselors Conference, as well as at the New England Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers Yearly Meeting. He has also presented or spoken in multiple webinars related to college admissions throughout the region. In his career, he has served as a coach at both the collegiate and high school level in cross-country and soccer, a student government moderator, has planned multiple major events for admissions, orientation, student life and college counseling initiatives, and has been a member of New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation review teams.

Brian holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, where he was a collegiate athlete in Cross-Country and Track and Field. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University, specializing in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies. Brian is an avid runner who has completed multiple major marathons, and is a loyal supporter to Liverpool FC and the Boston Celtics. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Amanda and daughter, Morgan with their dog, Stella, and cat, Lily.

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