Hampton Roads Educational Consulting, LLC

Dr. Fithian has always loved school! She has earned a B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership from the College of William and Mary (emphasis in gifted education).

She began her professional life as a physician. However, while taking time off from medicine to be a full-time mother she became involved in education and decided to pursue a doctorate in that field. After earning her degree in 2003, she served as the Director of Precollegiate Learner Programs at the Center for Gifted Education for a year before launching her independent consulting business.

The college admissions process has been an area of particular interest for her. As part of her Ph.D. program, she conducted research on college admissions and completed an internship in the admissions office at the College of William and Mary. She has also had the first-hand experience of guiding her own four children through local public schools to Princeton, Brown, and Harvard. She has conducted numerous workshops on admissions at her office as well as at the College of William and Mary, Peninsula schools, and libraries. In addition, she has provided individual college planning services to numerous local families.

Dr. Fithian is active in state and national educational advisory groups. She serves on the Virginia Advisory Committee for Education of the Gifted and on the Editorial Board for Parenting for High Potential, a publication of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). Locally, she is an educational advisor to Preschool Partners of the Virginia Peninsula http://www.preschoolpartnersva.org, an organization dedicated to improving access to quality childcare for area families.

She also recently co-sponsored Affording College, a public service program for Peninsula parents, with the Guidance Advisory Committee for Newport News Public Schools (http://affordingcollege.org).