Meet Tillie

Tillie Gottlieb has been working with students from around the world for over 15 years. She had a phenomenal experience getting her Bachelors degree from Whitman College and launched her career in an effort to help others find paths of equal substance and wonder. As an Admission Officer for a highly selective liberal arts college, she read more applications than she can count, recruited across North America, and ran tour guide and interview programs. She also had a seat at the notorious “committee” table, making wonderful and agonizing admission and scholarship decisions.

Eager to establish deeper relationships with students and families, she earned her Masters in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute, and became a college counselor for high school students. Counseling took her from Bangkok to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she most recently worked as The Athenian School’s Co-Director of College Counseling, and now to Los Angeles.

Tillie’s expertise and commitment to education access and equity extend beyond day-to-day counseling. She served as the Professional Development Chair and an Executive Board member of the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC). Tillie has chaired and presented at numerous conferences on topics ranging from decoding racism in admissions to personal writing in college applications. She also recently co-created and facilitated the California Teacher Development Collaborative’s (CATDC) “Centering Equity in College Counseling” workshop.

Tillie currently presents essay workshops to students across the globe as a Workshop Facilitator for The College Essay Guy, and consults for a variety of counseling organizations across California. She is also a seasonal reader for the University of Southern California (Go Trojans!) and reviews incoming first-year applications for the Office of Undergraduate Admission.

Tillie has received intensive training on empathetic counseling and listening techniques to manage developmental issues for adolescents and parents, stress, separation and individuation issues, anxiety and depression, identity and diversity issues, as well as conflicts between counseling and institutional needs. She is also a published writer and her work has been featured in editorial magazines in the U.S. and abroad.

Tillie’s experiences living overseas (Kenya, Spain, Canada, Thailand) as well as her background in theatre, communications, and admissions inform her approach to counseling. She is committed to helping students and families reflect deeply, make intentional decisions, and embrace the meaningful exploration inherent in the college application process.