Kaila Brown
Former Vanderbilt Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions & Collegewise Counselor
Kaila’s seven years of college admissions experience include time spent on both sides of the desk—as both an admissions officer and a school counselor. After earning a master’s in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, Kaila returned to her alma mater, Vanderbilt University, where she spent the next five years as an Assistant Director of Admissions, evaluating applications. She then accepted a post at Marist School in Atlanta as the Associate Director of College Counseling, assuming responsibility for college admissions support for an annual caseload of over 100 students whose college interests ranged from the most selective schools in the country, to Division 1 athletics, from competitive engineering programs to theatrical arts. Finally, she rounded out her experience with a successful two-year stint in the business world as a Customer Success Manager for a company that provides a college admissions guidance management system for high schools (the only counselor at Collegewise to have held such a post).
Mandy McGuire
Former Associate Director of Admissions at Duke & Collegewise Counselor
Mandy brings a uniquely deep and broad set of experiences to Collegewise. Her time in admissions began at Agnes Scott College, a private women’s college enrolling fewer than 1,000 students, and continued at Saint Mary’s School, a boarding school in North Carolina. In 2016, she accepted a position in the admissions office of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where she not only reviewed applications, but also delivered presentations, screened applicants via Zoom interviews, and coordinated more than 1500 alumni to participate in recruitment initiatives.
