Meet the Admissions Team

Susan Garrity Ardizzoni
Senior Director of Admissions
susan.ardizzoni@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

California (Los Angeles), New York (New York City)

Hometown: Bethel Park, Pennsylvania (and yes I'm still a Steelers fan!)
Favorite book: It's hard to narrow down to just one, but East of Eden is that book that I always come back to. I tend to really like books that focus on families and the communities in which they live (a more recent favorite is Little Fires Everywhere—highly recommended!). 
Favorite campus spot: I am the longest standing member of the staff (notice I didn't say oldest!) so have spent a lot of time on the Tufts campus. While there are many spots on campus that I love, the Memorial Steps are probably my favorite, especially since they were refurbished a few years back. Standing at the top or bottom, you can appreciate their beauty and message.

Sean Ashburn
Senior Assistant Director of Admissions
sean.ashburn@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Connecticut (Hartford and Tolland Counties), Massachusetts (Boston), New York (Bronx, Staten Island)

Hometown: Lebanon, Maine
Favorite book: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Tufts class I'd like to take: AMER 0094 Indigenous Urban America

Rachel Brown
Associate Director of Admissions
rachel_e.brown@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

California (Imperial Valley, Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, Ontario, San Fernando Valley), New York (Westchester County)

Hometown: San Diego, California
Tufts class I'd like to take: EXP-0028 Baseball Analytics: The Sabermetrics Model
Elephant fact: Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating, consuming 300-400 pounds of food!  

JT Duck
Dean of Admissions
joseph.duck@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties)

Hometown: Wheaton, Maryland
Favorite campus spot: Bendetson Hall – it’s where I get to partner with an extraordinary team of colleagues to read the applications (and stories, and aspirations, and journeys, and worldviews) of some of the nation’s, and the world’s, most promising and compelling students as we build each incoming class.
Favorite book(s): If I had to pick just one: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. But with books, you never have to pick just one, so some close seconds include: The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. 

Julia Dudley-Kramer
Admissions Counselor
julia.dudley_kramer@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

SMFA at Tufts, Massachusetts*, New York (Hudson Valley, Rockland County, The Catskills)

Hometown: Reading, Massachusetts
Favorite work of art: “Women of Paris: The Circus Lover” by James Jacques Joseph Tissot is one of my favorite lesser-known paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts permanent collection.
Elephant fact: Dumbo was recognized as Time Magazine’s “Mammal of the Year” in December 1941.

Thomas Duncan
Associate Director of SMFA Admissions at Tufts
thomas.duncan@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

SMFA at Tufts, Florida (Broward, Marin, and Palm Beach Counties), Massachusetts*

Hometown: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Favorite book(s): Roussel, Walser, Proust, Stein, Lispector, Michaux, Huysmans, Artaud, Pynchon, Borges, Sterne, Rabelais, Kharms, Vvedensky, Pizarnik, Seneca, Sun Ra, Trakl, Carrington, Mallarmé, Bataille, Celan, Howe, Sarraute, Zürn, any book that has a lot of long lists in it, etc.
Favorite work(s) of art: Laura Owens, Glenn Ligon, James Ensor, Sigmar Polke, Mike Kelley, Fischli+Weiss, Theaster Gates, Tauba Auerbach, Hanne Darboven, John Rafman, Charline von Heyl, Christian Marclay, Isa Genzken, Guy de Cointet, Ree Morton, R.H. Quaytman, Dieter Roth, Adolf Wölfli, Rachel Harrison (did I mention that I’m enthusiastic about a lot of things?)

Christopher Flores
Associate Director of Admissions
chris.flores@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

New York (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens), Texas (Amarillo, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, Midland)

Hometown: The Bronx, New York
Elephant fact: I once rode an elephant through a river in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 
Favorite book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Angela Jones-OBrien
Director of SMFA Admissions at Tufts
angela.jones@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

SMFA at Tufts, Kansas, Massachusetts*, Missouri

Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Favorite work of art: The entirety of the Frank Zappa catalogue
Favorite Tufts tradition: SMFA Senior Thesis Opening because it’s so exciting to see the culmination of all the work our senior capstone students have done during the year and because we get to see many of their families at the opening – people who we may not have seen since they helped students move in as freshmen!

Emily Lubow Klobucher
Assistant Director of Admissions
emily.klobucher@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

SMFA at Tufts, Massachusetts*, Nevada, Oklahoma

Hometown: Wenham, Massachusetts
Favorite quote: “Art is not always about pretty things. It’s about who we are, what happened to us, and how our lives are affected.” –Elizabeth Brown.
Favorite campus spot: The Silkscreen Room! They color-organize the inks in a perfect gradient. Plus, it has these enormous windows that look into the atrium which is perfect for people watching!

Trenton Manns '19
Admissions Counselor
trenton.manns@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Connecticut (New London and Windham Counties), Massachusetts*, Michigan, Rhode Island

Hometown: Ferndale, Michigan
Favorite campus spot: Alcove between Goddard Chappel and Ballou
Favorite quote: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela

Gracie Marshall '15
Senior Assistant Director of Admissions
grace.marshall@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Arizona, California (San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Central Coast and Central Valley), Colorado, New Mexico, Utah

Hometown: Palo Alto, California
Elephant fact: In addition to the familiar trumpet blast sound they're known for, elephants also purr much like cats do. 
Tufts class I'd like to take: MUS-44: History of Rock 'n Roll...again

Kella Merlain-Moffatt '20
Admissions Counselor
kella.merlain_moffatt@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

New Jersey (Burlington, Camden and Monmouth Counties, Southern Jersey), New York (Nassau County), Pennsylvania (Western and Central Pennsylvania)

Hometown: Wellington, Florida
Favorite campus spot: The Africana Center
Favorite Tufts tradition: The illumination ceremony is hands down the best tradition. It takes place twice during your Tufts career – the first night of Orientation and the night before Commencement. Each student receives an unlit candle, one person lights theirs and passes the flame until each candle is lit. It's a beautiful full circle moment and if you keep your candle and reuse it (like I did) it's super sentimental. 

Bridget Moore
Associate Director of Admissions
bridget.moore@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

New York (Buffalo, Rochester, Monroe and Erie Counties), Africa, China, Europe, Middle East

Hometown: Albany, New York
Elephant fact: Some elephants are “lefties,” others are “righties.” Because of constant usage, their preferred tusk gets shorter over time.
Favorite book: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – can’t pick just one

Evelyn Ocampo '17
Assistant Director of Admissions
evelyn.ocampo@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Illinois, Massachusetts*, Texas (Austin, El Paso, Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Victoria)

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Favorite Campus Spot: The Echo Spot
Favorite Tufts tradition: Tuftonia’s Day, an end-of-the-year carnival! 

Aidan O'Shea
Admissions Counselor
aidan.oshea@tufts.edu 

Pronouns: He, Him, His

California (Valley of the Moon, Sacramento County, Marin County, San Francisco County, Contra Costa County, Alameda County), Massachusetts*

Hometown: Hollis, New Hampshire
Elephant fact: Growing up to five inches (!), the eyelashes of the elephant are the longest in the animal kingdom.
Favorite book: The 1,001 Nights

Denny Paredes
Director of Strategic Planning
denny.paredes@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

California (Los Angeles/Pasadena), Florida (Miami-Dade County), Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Wyoming, Latin America

Hometown: New York City, New York
Favorite campus spot: Bendetson Hall. This is not only where I get to meet students on paper in their applications, but also where I connect with them in person once they are on campus!
Favorite Tufts tradition: Painting the cannon, because it gives students an outlet to express themselves in a creative and nontraditional way. 

Paz Pitarque
Assistant Director of Admissions
paz.pitarque@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Maryland (not including Montgomery and Prince George's Counties), Massachusetts*, American Samoa, Guam, Caribbean, Oceania, Southeast Asia

Hometown: Quito, Ecuador
Favorite book: A Separate Peace by John Knowles 
Tufts class I’d like to take: EC-144 Income Inequality, Poverty, and Economic Justice

Thomas Radovich
Assistant Director of Admissions
thomas.radovich@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

SMFA at Tufts, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts*, Mississippi

Hometown: Branford, Connecticut
Favorite Tufts tradition: The SMFA Art Sale is such an exciting time of year. All of the walls of the building are lined with hundreds of works of art from SMFA at Tufts students past and present. It's great to see so many people visiting SMFA looking to purchase art. Plus, there's a chance your artwork gets hung next to famous SMFA alumni like Mike and Doug Starn or Jim Dine.
Favorite quote: "Why talk when you can paint?" –Milton Avery

Jason Rathman '17
Assistant Director of Admissions
jason.rathman@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Connecticut (Fairfield and Litchfield Counties, Waterbury), Delaware, Massachusetts*

Hometown: Stamford, Connecticut
Favorite (off) campus spot: Magnificent Muffin and Bagel Shop! They get their bagels fresh from New York City!
Favorite book: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. I spent a semester reading both parts with Professor Tamara Márquez-Raffetto in the Spanish department.

Sayaka Smith
Assistant Director of Admissions
sayaka.smith@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

District of Columbia, Maryland (Montgomery and Prince George's Counties), Virginia, Canada, Central Asia, East Asia (except China), South Asia

Hometown: London, United Kingdom
Favorite campus spot: Tisch Library Roof (great views of Boston, breezy in the summer!)
Tufts class I'd like to take: PS 138-03 Politics of Oil & Energy

Jon Sokolski '14
Assistant Director of Admissions
jonathan.sokolski@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts*, New York (Suffolk County), Ohio, Vermont

Hometown: Burlington, Massachusetts
Favorite campus spot: Upstairs in the Campus Center (couches, pool tables, and The Sink)!
Favorite Tufts tradition: Not stepping on the Jumbo logo in the lobby of the athletic center.

Beky Stiles '12
Associate Director of Admissions
rebekah.stiles@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Connecticut (New Haven and Middlesex Counties), Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey (Mercer and Somerset Counties), North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin

Hometown: Chichester, New Hampshire
Favorite campus spot: The lawn tucked behind Paige Hall where you’ll find an unexpectedly good view of Boston and a handful of very comfortable bright blue chairs.
Tufts class I’d like to take: SCP-0031: 3D Foundations: Wood, Welding and Plaster

Pamela Toscano '19
Admissions Counselor
pamela.toscano@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Florida (not including Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties), Kentucky, New York (The Adirondacks, Capital Region and Central New York), North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky 
Favorite campus spot: Lilly Music Library- relaxing environment and great natural sunlight
Favorite Tufts tradition: Waking up early on Homecoming and Spring Fling! 

Aaron Watts E'18
Assistant Director of Admissions
aaron.watts@tufts.edu

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Massachusetts*, New Jersey (Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, N. Passaic, Sussex and Warren Counties)

Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Favorite campus spot: The Sink
Favorite book: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Lauren Wilkes
Associate Director of Admissions
lauren.wilkes@tufts.edu

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts*, Oregon, Washington

Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Favorite elephant fact: Elephants can’t jump! Even when moving at their maximum speed of 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour, they still keep at least one foot on the ground at all times.
Favorite work of art: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

*Please note: If you have questions regarding a specific high school, please call the office directly at (617) 627-3170 or email undergraduate.admissions@tufts.edu