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Meet the Admissions Team

Below is an alphabetical listing of the Tufts admissions officers and you may reach out to an admissions officer by e-mailing them at the address provided. If you need immediate assistance with your application, please contact the Admissions Office directly at undergraduate.admissions@tufts.edu. If you have questions about applying as a transfer student, e-mail transfer.admissions@tufts.edu instead.

Sean Ashburn

Associate Director of Admissions He, Him, His sean.ashburn@tufts.edu
Hometown Lebanon, Maine
Favorite book

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Favorite spot on campus

Indigenous Center

Alison Berryman

Director of Undergraduate Admissions She, Her, Hers alison.berryman@tufts.edu
Hometown Nashville, Tennessee
Favorite book

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Favorite Quote

“A party without cake is just a meeting.” - Julia Child

Tahkeya Blake

Associate Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers tahkeya.blake@tufts.edu
Hometown Worcester, Massachusetts
Favorite book

Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey

Favorite elephant fact

Elephants create their own sunscreen by using mud and wet sand to protect their skin from the sun!

Brent Cheung '23

Admissions Counselor brent.cheung@tufts.edu

Jon Conley

Assistant Director of Admissions He, Him, His jon.conley@tufts.edu
Hometown Contoocook, New Hampshire
Favorite elephant fact

The African elephant is the world's largest land mammal – with males on average measuring up to 3m high and weighing up to 6 tonnes.

Favorite quote

“There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” - Derek Jeter

Ellie Davis

Associate Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers ellie.davis@tufts.edu
Hometown Berkeley, California
Favorite elephant fact

Ellie/Elly is one of the most popular names in English for Elephants!

Favorite book

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Rae Deveney '21

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers rae.deveney@tufts.edu
Hometown Grafton, Massachusetts
Favorite book

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

Tufts class I'll like to take

Anything with Dr. Jennifer Eyl – her class, History of Christianity 1, changed my life!

JT Duck

Dean of Admissions He, Him, His joseph.duck@tufts.edu
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

Senior Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers julia.dudley_kramer@tufts.edu
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.

Favorite elephant fact

Dumbo was recognized as Time Magazine’s “Mammal of the Year” in December 1941.

Thomas Duncan

Director of SMFA Admissions He, Him, His thomas.duncan@tufts.edu
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?)

Mackenzie Gross

Admissions Counselor She, Her, Hers mackenzie.gross@tufts.edu
Hometown Poolesville, Maryland
Favorite book(s)

I have always loved Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. In a more academic context, my favorites are When Should Law Forgive by Martha Minow, The Privileged Poor by Anthony A. Jack, and The End of Adolescence: The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood by Nancy E. Hill and Alexis Redding.

Favorite work(s) of art

My favorite works of art are Portrait of Madame X and Lake O’Hara by Sargent, Gloucester Harbor at Sunset by Lane, Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight in the Fog by Monet, Winter Sunshine by King, and Leander’s Tower on the Bosporus by Gilford.

Justin Gunn

Admissions Counselor He, Him, His justin.gunn@tufts.edu
Hometown Durham, North Carolina
Favorite Tufts Tradition

Painting the cannon because not only does it allow students to express themselves, but needing to guard it until sunrise adds a bit of a fun challenge

Favorite Quote

"Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in me. Believe in the me who believes in you."

Nicole Horsman

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers nicole.horsman@tufts.edu
Hometown Andover, Massachusetts
Favorite elephant fact

Elephants “talk” to each other using low-frequency sounds that humans cannot hear.

Favorite book

Art Matters by Neil Gaiman

Meredith Lian

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers meredith.lian@tufts.edu
Hometown Alexandria, Virginia
Favorite Book:

Recently: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. All time: Persuasion by Jane Austen or The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Favorite Spot on Campus:

The benches at the top of the President’s lawn -- you get a great view of the Boston skyline and see lots of students around enjoying the outdoor space.

Gracie Marshall '15

Director of Constituent Engagement She, Her, Hers grace.marshall@tufts.edu
Hometown Palo Alto, California
Favorite 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

Ellie Miller '22

Admissions Counselor ellen.miller@tufts.edu
Hometown Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas
Favorite Book

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Favorite Tufts Tradition

The midnight organ concert on Halloween!

Riley Myhaver

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers riley.myhaver@tufts.edu
Hometown Gray, Maine
Favorite elephant fact

The elephant brain is roughly four times larger than the human brain!

Favorite work of art

There are so many good works of art to choose from, but Martha Graham’s “Lamentation” will always be one of my favorite pieces to watch.

Indigo Naar '21

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers indigo.naar@tufts.edu
Hometown St. Petersburg, Florida
Favorite campus spot

The SMFA Welding Shop

Favorite work of art

The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson

Valerie Nam

Assistant Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers valerie.nam@tufts.edu
Hometown Lawrence, Massachusetts
Favorite elephant fact

Elephants say hello to each other by “hugging” their trunks – that’s so cute!

Favorite book

The Privileged Poor by Anthony Abraham Jack

Sam Nicol

Assistant Director of Admissions He, Him, His samuel.nicol@tufts.edu
Hometown Indianapolis, Indiana
Favorite book

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Favorite elephant fact

Elephants can drink up to 50 gallons of water in a day, and can hold 2.5 gallons in their trunk. That’s one heck of a water bottle!

Denny Paredes

Director of Strategic Planning He, Him, His denny.paredes@tufts.edu
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.

Lindsay Pike

Associate Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers lindsay.pike@tufts.edu
Hometown Eastchester, New York
Favorite elephant fact

Lucy the Elephant is a six-story tall structure that was modeled after Jumbo by inventor James V. Lafferty in 1881. Residing in Margate City, New Jersey, Lucy is one of the oldest surviving roadside tourist attractions in America and a National Historic Landmark.

Favorite book

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Paz Pitarque

Associate Director of Admissions She, Her, Hers paz.pitarque@tufts.edu
Hometown Quito, Ecuador
Favorite book

A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Tufts class I’d like to take

EC-144 Income Inequality, Poverty, and Economic Justice

Dan Rodriguez

Assistant Director of Admissions He, Him, His daniel_r.rodriguez@tufts.edu
Hometown Haverhill, Massachusetts
Favorite book

Misery by Stephen King

Favorite work of art

Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (It’s in the MFA collection!)

Jolssen Rodriguez

Assistant Director of Admissions He, Him, His, Él jolssen.rodriguez@tufts.edu
Hometown Peabody and Lynn, Massachusetts
Favorite book(s)

Michael Scott’s The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series has to be one of my favorite personal reads but Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is one of my favorite academic reads ever. If you want to begin your understanding of how educational structures are formed, operate, and continue to inequitably thrive in our society, then Freire’s work is a must.

Favorite quote

I know this is cheesy but “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars” has always motivated me to do my best.

Tom Screnci

Associate Director of Admissions He, Him, His thomas.screnci@tufts.edu
Hometown Milton, Massachusetts
Favorite elephant fact

Baby elephants don’t learn to control their trunks until they are about 1 year old.

Favorite work of art

As a lover of the outdoors, I really enjoy basically anything by Albert Bierstadt and Paul Signac.

Jon Sokolski '14

Associate Director of Admissions He, Him, His jonathan.sokolski@tufts.edu
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

Emma Waite

Admissions Counselor She, Her, Hers emma.waite@tufts.edu
Hometown Columbus, Ohio
Favorite elephant fact

Elephants have great memories! Their brains' temporal lobes are proportionally larger compared to humans.

Favorite campus spot

Tisch Library Roof (the Boston skyline views are amazing!)

Will Wilson '21

Assistant Director of Admissions He, Him, His william.wilson@tufts.edu
Hometown Lewiston, Idaho
Favorite book

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Favorite campus spot

The top floor of the Campus Center

Tufts University

Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Bendetson Hall
2 The Green
Medford, MA 02155

617-627-3170

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