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We approach each and every student with empathy and compassion
(and a little bit of humor goes a long way, too!)
At Open Door Education, our commitment to you is two-fold: to provide exceptional enrichment and support, and cultivate a love for knowledge in your student. Our team of exceptional tutors helps each and every student who walks their strengths tap into their intellectual curiosity, build academic resilience and, ultimately, succeed in ways they never imaged.
SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board, ACT is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc., PSAT/NMSQT is a trademark jointly owned by the College Board. None of the trademark holders are affiliated with Open Door Education or this website.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Alec earned both his Bachelor’s of Science (2013) and his Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (2014). Driven by an implacable urge to learn, explore, communicate, and share knowledge with others, Alec offers a unique background and perspective as a tutor. He spent most of his childhood years growing up in Texas, lived abroad for a few years in France, completed high school in New Hampshire, and most recently graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. Alec has been playing an active role as an educator and tutor for the past several years, administering undergraduate and high school-level courses at MIT and tutoring individual students on (primarily) quantitative subjects: especially math, physics, and computer science. He also tutors SAT, ACT, and AP standardized testing material. Professionally he works in the high tech industry as an integrated circuit design engineer. Recreationally, Alec is an electronics hobbyist and an avid volunteer in his hometown. He enjoys listening to old-school hip-hop, and he cherishes New England winters.
Brian Mernoff is a passionate life-long learner and teacher who first started teaching swimming at the age of 14 and has since taught a wide range of subjects and skills. He was a high school chemistry teacher and has instructed middle and high school math. At the MIT Museum, Brian served as the Manager for Science Education. Brian obtained an M.S. in chemistry from Tufts and a B.S. and teaching certifications in chemistry and math from Westfield State University.
Brian takes a skills-based approach to teaching, connecting content with student interests to develop transferable skills and tools that students can bring to new problems and other subjects. He works with students using physical models, simulations, and other modalities to help them understand core concepts, which prepare them to engage with more complex ideas.
Over the years he has become proficient at 3D modeling, 3D printing, laser cutting, astrophotography, archery, mountain biking, and puzzle box and board game design.
Don has been a tutor at Open Door Education since 2016, and he specializes in helping students with writing, history, and test preparation for the SSAT, ISEE, SAT, and ACT. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Don majored in Classics before teaching Latin to underserved students in Philadelphia — in an innovative program that increased students’ reading scores through the study of “classical root” words and grammar. Since that time, Don has helped hundreds of young people to become more effective writers, more thoughtful students of history, and more successful test-takers.
Don, who earned his Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, and an MBA from Boston University, has tutored and advised international students applying to American universities and mentored freshman students at Harvard University. He also managed academic programs at Harvard Business School for more than a dozen years.
In his spare time, Don is a tennis addict and a collector of 60s vinyl. He and his wife, Laraine, have ushered three kids through the Acton school system, and he well understands the many challenges of a highly competitive school system. Don enjoys spending time with his dogs, Abe and Teddy, and, in addition to tutoring, Don also writes and edits strategic plans for nonprofits.
Ellen is enthusiastically supportive of a wide variety of learning styles. Her educational experience encompasses public and private settings and students of many ages and backgrounds. She has earned a master’s in Integrated Day Education from Antioch New England Graduate School, and a second master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Ellen is licensed as a teacher and administrator in Massachusetts and prefers to spend her time working face-to-face with individual students.
She leverages knowledge of neurology, organization, technology, special education, and long-term educational outcomes to support students with atypical learning styles. Her tutoring partner has four legs and meows.
Ellen values self-reflection and challenges her own learning in such diverse areas as enigmatology, mycology, costume, international and historic dance, and local history. Becoming a grandmother has confirmed Ellen’s certainty that all children are special.
Ingrid earned her B.A. in English from Williams College. Inspired by her experience there as a writing tutor, she decided to pursue a career in education, earning her M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For the next thirty years, Ingrid taught English, first at Lexington High School and then at Concord Carlisle Regional High School.
Ingrid loves helping young people hone their skills as writers and become more effective and confident as students. She believes that learning to do anything — punctuate a sentence, study for a history exam, craft a persuasive argument — involves strategy and self-reflection and knows how students can blossom when they work through that process with a tutor.
In her free time, Ingrid likes spending time with her husband and two college-aged children, taking long walks with her dog, cooking, and reading.
Jazz graduated as the only Sikh student in her class at Harvard College. She began tutoring as a way to make education more accessible for her local community of underserved black and brown students and immigrants in L.A. Being a filmmaker and storyteller allows her to be innovative and adjust to how each student learns, responds to stress, and thinks about their education. She prioritizes not only teaching educational content but foundational skills like stress management, creative problem solving, goal setting, and articulating needs.
When Jazz is not teaching, she enjoys playing volleyball, roller skating, deconstructing movie scenes, cooking Punjabi dishes, and spending time with her siblings.
Leann discovered her passion for education in high school through peer-to-peer tutoring programs and Best Buddies. She worked for several years as a subject tutor at Wake Forest University, where she graduated in 2013 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Spanish. Since graduation, Leann has been a zookeeper, rescued abandoned sea turtles, and worked as an educator at the New England Aquarium. She began working at Open Door Education in September 2014. Her experiences have taught her that life is not a linear path, and she uses that knowledge to reassure anxious students.
In her free time, she enjoys making pottery, crocheting, listening to podcasts, reading science fiction novels, and volunteering at Stone Zoo.
Mike grew up near Pittsburgh. Visits as a boy to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History fostered a lifelong love of learning. His family moved to Panama where he spent his high school years SCUBA diving, racing cayucos through the Panama Canal, and hiking across the Isthmus on the Camino Real. Mike graduated from Dartmouth College, majoring in government. He then worked as a police officer. Later, he earned a JD from the University of Maine School of Law and, after a stint as a judicial law clerk to the New Hampshire Superior Court and a trial attorney with the Department of Justice, spent 22 years as a trial lawyer litigating cases throughout New England.
Having passed four bar exams, Mike understands the stress of high-stakes test taking. He mentored many young lawyers and for years coached youth sports. Mike enjoyed doing so, discovered he was a good teacher, and found great satisfaction in helping others. A former licensed history teacher, Mike has worked with several local school districts. He is certified to teach English as a foreign language through TEFL. He is an award-winning thriller writer. In his spare time, Mike enjoys biking, history, reading, movies, and hanging with Smudge, his rescue dog. He also loves spending time with his wife and daughter.
Naomi has been tutoring since she was 15 years old, when she started working with students through an afterschool program at her high school. She continued this trajectory throughout college, working as a math instructor for students in local schools and as a peer writing coach, and even in her gap year, during which she taught English classes to students in Haifa, Israel. Since receiving her bachelor’s degree in sociology, with a minor in prison studies, from Vassar College, Naomi has worked as a math tutor and an SAT and ACT test prep instructor. Her favorite part of tutoring is helping students overcome obstacles and build confidence in their capacities as learners.
Outside of work, Naomi loves cooking and podcasts. She also enjoys reading fantasy novels, watching baseball, and learning more about world history.
Piper graduated from Merrimack College with a B.A. in Mathematics and minors in Music and Women’s & Gender Studies. During her time at Merrimack, she discovered her passion for tutoring at the math center where she worked with a wide variety of walk-in students. By the end of her undergraduate studies, she was assisting the Director in leading peer tutor training and making sure the center ran efficiently during unpredictable times. Piper has helped students succeed in math subjects from pre-algebra to AP calculus, and she believes that effective tutoring involves adapting to a student’s specific learning needs through communication and collaboration in order to facilitate a solid understanding of concepts and application.
When she isn’t tutoring, Piper enjoys learning about music and playing just about anything on the many instruments she has taught herself. She has also enjoyed teaching herself various coding languages to support some of her many other hobbies. She loves spending time with friends both online and in person and enjoys taking walks with her Yorkshire Terrier, Lila.
Sam is a current medical student at the Duke University School of Medicine. She graduated from Harvard College with an AB in neuroscience on the mind, brain, and behavior track and a secondary in the studies of women, gender, and sexuality. She discovered her love for education through coordinating an after-school program for immigrant children and tutoring her peers. She continued to work in education during her gap years before medical school as a learning strategist, where she provided tutoring and academic support to first-gen, low-income students. In addition to tutoring, she was a mentor to first-year students and incarcerated youth while in college. She views education as a tool for social change, which is why she is excited to continue her tutoring career at Open Door Education. As a future physician, she hopes to use what she learned in her time as a tutor to educate her patients on their health and well-being.
In her free time, Sam loves to travel, listen to music and podcasts, and go for nature walks, especially with her family and friends.
Tom’s first experience with one-on-one education came through an informal language exchange program in Berlin, Germany, where he lived for parts of 2007 and 2009. For one hour, Tom would teach his partner English, and for the next hour, Tom’s partner would teach him German. It was like platonic speed dating for polyglots, and Tom enjoyed the experience. When Tom returned stateside in late 2009, now fully confident in his language skills, he decided to tutor German to students in the Boston area, and thus blossomed his tutoring prowess, which now includes the ISEE, SSAT, SAT, ACT, and GRE.
Tom studied Political Science and German at the University of Rhode Island, where he earned his BA in 2008. Tom also competed as a Division-1 track and field athlete in the long and triple jump. Since he suspects the reader is wondering, the answer is “yes:” Tom was indeed able to dunk a basketball on a regulation rim. For several years, Tom worked in environmental policy, and in 2012 he completed a Masters of Environmental Management at Duke University, with a concentration in Environmental and Resource Economics.
When Tom is not at Open Door, he pursues snowboarding, patronizes Chipotle, visits family and friends, and travels the US and abroad.
Travis Minor founded Open Door Education in 2011 with the goal of providing exceptional educational support and helping students to feel successful.
Travis, who earned his B.S. in Secondary Education at the University of Vermont and his M.Ed. at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, began his teaching career in West Philadelphia, where he became acutely aware of the profound impact of enthusiastic, rigorous tutoring. He saw how one-on-one tutoring could teach content efficiently and effectively, but that it could also provide so much more, from mentorship to organization to a deeper understanding of what it truly means to be an effective student. Travis loves helping students succeed, and he’s grateful that he gets to spend each day doing what he loves.
When he’s not at Open Door, Travis loves listening to podcasts, running, playing basketball, learning to play bass, and going on adventures with his wonderful wife Rebecca and his best friend Dewey, a Bernese Mountain Dog.
William obtained a B.A. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He conducted bioinformatics research at the Barnholtz-Sloan Lab throughout his undergraduate career and greatly contributed towards two publications about gliomablastoma (brain tumor) informatics research. During his time at CWRU, William found it rewarding to help other students achieve their academic goals and to see them advance in their various career paths. This enthusiasm for helping others has transferred into helping students succeed at Open Door Education. Additionally, William graduated from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (ABRHS), so he has been through the ABRHS life and can understand the current students’ perspectives.
In his free time, William loves to play basketball, spend time with family and friends, and go hiking on nature trails.
