Each of our instructors is an expert in the subjects he or she teaches and has a minimum of five years experience in education; most have ten or more. More importantly, each tutor has demonstrated an exceptional gift for working individually with students at all academic levels.

Collectively, our faculty has worked with thousands of high school students who have subsequently gone on to study at some of the nation’s best colleges and universities, including Amherst, Bard, Berkeley, Brown, UCLA, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Oberlin, University of Pennsylvania, Pepperdine, Pomona, Princeton, USC, Stanford, Tufts, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Williams, Yale, and many more.

DREW BRODY, M.A., PRESIDENT, CO-FOUNDER

Drew has been working with students for fifteen years to improve their higher level thinking skills and academic performance. His experience includes tutoring hundreds of students for standardized tests such as the SAT, the SAT Subject Tests, the ACT, and the GRE, and in a wide variety of academic subjects, including trigonometry, calculus, statistics, French language, essay writing, world literature, mythology, political science, and theater. He has also taught courses in algebra and creative writing at a range of grade levels from middle school through graduate school, including a teacher-training program for middle school math teachers in New York City. As a co-founder of the MBA Centre in Paris, Drew was instrumental in developing an educational institution dedicated to helping French students prepare for and apply to North American universities and graduate schools. In Los Angeles, Drew has created new SAT programs and developed a series of workshops on writing personal statements and navigating the college admissions process for high schools throughout California. He also developed and co-founded the Visions Scholastic Academy, a WASC-accredited high school program at the Visions Adolescent Outpatient Counseling Center in Brentwood, where he served as Director of Education until 2005.

Drew earned a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University and a Master of Arts with Distinction from The University of Birmingham, England and completed a post-graduate program at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

DEBORAH PUETTE, VICE PRESIDENT, CO-FOUNDER

Deborah has been tutoring writing, reading, and standardized test preparation, specializing in SAT prep, for over ten years. Since moving to Los Angeles several years ago, Deborah has taught a college essay writing workshop at Brentwood School in Los Angeles and SAT prep classes at Crossroads School in Santa Monica. She has had the pleasure of watching her students raise both their test-taking and analytical skills to levels that not only increase their scores dramatically but also give her students the confidence to face the continued challenges of high school, college, graduate school and life beyond academia.

A National Merit Scholar, Deborah attended Boston College and the American University in Paris on full academic scholarship. Her international studies included French, Photography and International Law, and she graduated from Boston College’s Carroll School of Business with a Bachelor of Science.

JEREMY RABB, M.F.A.

Jeremy has tutored for over fifteen years. Before joining The Scholar Group, he taught independently, as well as for Drew Brody Tutoring, Stanley Kaplan, and The Princeton Review. At TPR, he developed and wrote teaching materials, and won the award for Best Teacher in New York City.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University, and his Master of Fine Arts from The Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

VALERIE WEISS, PH.D.

Dr. Weiss has been helping students to excel on standardized tests and in the classroom for over fifteen years. In Los Angeles, Valerie has taught at the Marlborough School and the Prep Center. Privately, she has worked with students from the third grade through adulthood, improving work habits, test scores and self-confidence. Valerie has been particularly successful at increasing girls’ confidence in approaching the areas of math and science. Valerie was recently invited by L’Oreal to participate on their 2007 For Women in Science Awards Panel: Shaping A New Image to discuss the role of the media in portraying Women in Science. Her students’ success stories include increasing one student’s SAT scores by more than 400 points and helping another student get a full-paid scholarship to UCLA.

A graduate of Princeton University, Valerie majored in Molecular Biology and minored in Theatre and Dance. Post-graduate degrees include a Master of Medical Sciences from the Lucille Markey Scholar Program at Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Harvard University.

ROB JOHNSON, J.D.

Rob has been tutoring for more than ten years. He excels at simplifying and clarifying the learning process. Rob enables his students to become independent, analytical thinkers, and confident, methodical test takers. In addition to his tutoring experience, Rob worked as an Associate at a top-25 law firm and as an Equity Research Analyst on Wall Street.

Rob holds an Artium Baccalaureus in Psychology from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School; he is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

DEREK RETHWISCH

Derek has been teaching and tutoring for over ten years. Prior to joining The Scholar Group, he worked for The Princeton Review where he helped develop several classes, wrote manuals and trained incoming teachers. In addition, Derek has tutored privately and created an after-school program for underprivileged children in Philadelphia.

Derek earned an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a business degree from the Wharton School of Business. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

DAVID SCHONBERGER, M.A.

David has taught and tutored mathematics for over ten years at the university, college, and high school levels. He has taught at the University of California at Davis, University of Nevada at Reno, and University of Kansas, as well as colleges and high schools in Davis, Sacramento, Reno, and Dodge City. His expertise includes subjects ranging from basic Algebra through first year university Calculus, as well as Probability, Statistics, and Discrete Math for computer science majors. In addition to his teaching experience, David also spent three years working as a product development actuary in the life insurance industry.

David earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Teaching in Mathematics from UC Davis. He is currently finishing a Master of Science in Computer Science at the University of Kansas.

AARON AUERBACH

Aaron taught high school Spanish full-time in Watertown, Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles to pursue graduate studies, where he has been tutoring Spanish for the last seven years. He is a credentialed Spanish teacher in both California and Connecticut, and holds a Multiple Subject credential in California for elementary school. Aaron prefers a holistic approach to teaching, recognizing that the ultimate success of a tutor is the ability to instill within each student an appreciation for the process of learning itself.

Aaron received his Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Brown University, where his Honors Thesis was a translation of a novel from Argentina, La ciudad ausente. He spent a semester studying at the University of Buenos Aires, and after graduating from Brown, backpacked around South America for fourteen months. He recently completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in film at California Institute of the Arts.

TIM LAKE, M.F.A.

Tim Lake has over ten years of teaching experience. Before joining The Scholar Group, he worked for Kaplan Testing, taught Literature and Rhetoric at the college level, and managed and ran his own tutoring company. As one of the top private tutors in Houston, he worked with students in a variety of academic disciplines, including the SAT, the GRE, High School Math and Science, Literature, History, and Writing.

Tim received his Bachelor of Arts with honors in French and English from Amherst College and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he studied poetry.

MARYBETH REARDON, M.A.

Marybeth has been teaching and tutoring Physics at the AP high school level for over six years, including three years at the highly regarded Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts. At Concord-Carlisle, she was thrilled to see 18 of her 20 students score fives on their AP exams (the other two scored fours) in 2007. In September of that same year, Marybeth moved across the country to teach AP Physics C and college-preparatory Physics at Santa Monica High School, where she has increased enrollment in Physics courses by 50% since her arrival. One of her favorite courses to teach is AP Physics B, because students gain exposure to all of the branches of physics and not just mechanics.

A three-sport captain in high school, Marybeth received an athletic scholarship to play Division I field hockey in college. She graduated Holy Cross Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a lifetime member of Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Marybeth is also a National Board Certified Teacher.

MARY-LAURE NEULAT, M.A., L.L.B.

Mary-Laure has been teaching French, both as a tutor and as a class instructor, for over ten years. Before moving to Los Angeles where she joined The Scholar Group, she taught at Harvard University, where she won an Award for Excellence in Teaching four semesters in a row, and at Middlebury Language Schools and Columbia University’s Paris program. Mary-Laure is also an avid language learner, which allows her to fully grasp both the obstacles and rewards of the language-learning process. She believes in fostering curiosity and making learning fun.

Mary-Laure holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Ecole Normale Superieure - Sorbonne University, France, a Bachelor of Law from the University of London, and a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from University Paris X.

REBECCA RICH, M.S.

Rebecca has been tutoring students in chemistry for over ten years and is currently teaching honors and regular chemistry at Maranatha High School in Pasadena. She has a passion for not only promoting academic success in chemistry but also imparting an appreciation for the subject. Her master’s work focused on “chemophobia,” or chemistry anxiety in the classroom, and through teaching and tutoring students she seeks to alleviate fear while helping the student strive for academic excellence.

Rebecca graduated with a 4.0 GPA from the University of Louisiana where she received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and received her Master of Science in Chemistry (emphasis in chemical education) from Texas A&M University.

MELISSA BERTON, M.F.A.

Currently teaching English at one of the most distinguished independent high schools in the Los Angeles area, Melissa has taught courses in American literature, world literature, creative writing, and poetry for over a decade. Poetry is Melissa’s particular passion, and she has served as Poet in Residence for the Beverly Hills School District and is an assistant editor for The Antioch Review, a national literary journal.

Melissa took her Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and her Master of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. By encouraging her students to enter texts from places in their own imaginations, Melissa helps learners of all levels to approach the AP literature, language, and SAT verbal exams confidently, to read closely, to write clearly and colorfully, and to trust their own inspirations.

BOB SCHAFFER, PH.D.

Bob has over 15 years of tutoring and teaching experience and has served in a number of official teaching roles. During his four years as a teaching assistant at Stanford, he received excellent evaluations, won two departmental teaching awards and won one prestigious university-wide teaching award. He also worked with Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning as a consultant and spent six years training and mentoring other teaching assistants. From 2006-2008, Bob was a visiting professor at Harvey Mudd College where he taught five different engineering classes and received outstanding teaching evaluations for every class that he taught.

When not tutoring, Bob is a senior research engineer who develops and designs innovative radar imaging technology. Bob graduated from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. He also received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from George Mason University and his high school diploma from US News and World Report's selection for the number one high school in America: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

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