Administration
Lorna Gray
President & Founder
Lorna Gray is known for her commitment to families and entrepreneurial insight. Fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and working knowledge of Japanese, Lorna has become an expert in East Asian culture and professional ethics. Her many talents include a giftedness for navigating bicultural transition and challenges, recognizing personal values and commitment in others, as well as an acute sense of business intuitiveness. Before founding Interface, Lorna was a Vice-President of Professional Financial Services and CEO of Angel Education. Lorna graduated with an engineering degree in technology from Xiangtan University in Hunan Province. She has lived in China, New Zealand, and the US.
Ashley Nieblas
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Ashley Nieblas is an operations strategist and education leader with over a decade of experience driving organizational clarity, scalable systems, and mission-aligned growth. She completed her B.A. in History at UCLA in just three years and holds an M.F.A. in Writing, pairing analytical precision with a storyteller’s instinct.
Before joining Interface Education as Chief Operating Officer, Ashley served as Chief of Staff at Collegewise, where she led company-wide strategic planning, guided cross-functional execution, and built operational frameworks that elevated both team performance and client satisfaction. Drawn to the intersection of mission and mechanics, she believes strong operational systems are the foundation that enables educators to focus fully on building trust, delivering exceptional guidance, and achieving transformative outcomes for students and families.
Ashley approaches her work with the conviction that when strategy, systems, and heart align, organizations can not only scale their impact but also create lasting value for the communities they serve.
Keith Gramling
Director of College Counseling
With over 20 years in college admissions experience at a selective liberal arts college recruiting and evaluating both international and domestic students, Keith joined Interface in 2015 to continue helping Chinese and other students find success. Building on his years of admissions experience, he enjoys working with students as they begin planning for the next stage in their growth. Keith provides extraordinary guidance and support throughout the entire process and his professional guidance leads to excellent college outcomes. Keith’s students regularly come back to say how he went over and beyond for them. He has a great sense of humor and possesses the professional experience and patience to lead Interface students through the complex college admissions process. Keith is a strong networker and is a member of many professional organizations that focus on college admissions. As the Assistant Director of College Counseling, Keith is responsible for the ongoing training and mentoring of the counseling staff and developing new programs and services to strengthen our college counseling program for our families. He also leads our annual college tour program.
Tiffany Noel
Assistant Director of College Counseling
Director of the Writing Team
Dr. Tiffany Noel is an interdisciplinary educator and scholar whose work bridges research, pedagogy, and mentorship across K–12 and higher education contexts. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue University, a B.A. in English with a TESOL certification from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and completed postdoctoral research training at the University of Virginia. With 15 years of experience directing undergraduate and graduate programs, publishing scholarly work, and presenting at national and international conferences, Tiffany’s career reflects a deep commitment to educational advancement, culturally responsive practice, and transformational learning.
At Interface Education Services, Tiffany brings this ethos to the intersection of college counseling and writing coaching, where she fosters narrative coherence, intellectual depth, and strategic alignment across students’ application materials. Her work is grounded in the belief that competitive college applications are not solely about achievement but about voice, and how students articulate purpose, curiosity, and complexity across contexts. Through intentional collaboration among counselors, coaches, and families, she distills each student’s trajectory into a guiding narrative framework that ensures every essay contributes meaningfully to a larger, authentic portrait of who they are and who they are becoming.
Debbie Greenberg
Director of Programming
Debbie brings over 20 years of college counseling experience to Interface as a former college counselor at one of St. Louis’ leading private high schools. She also developed a college counseling curriculum and program for a nationally recognized college access program. Debbie’s students love her energy and enthusiasm, knowing that she genuinely cares about their well-being and success. She was recently selected by the internationally known Colleges That Change Lives consortium as outstanding counselor of the year. Debbie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and her master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Her son is attending medical school, and her daughter is a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. When Debbie isn't working, you can probably find her at a yoga class, the gym, or gardening in her back yard.
Lei Yu
Assistant to the President
Lei holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Social Gerontology from Miami University, along with a graduate certificate in Applied Statistics. With several years of experience in graduate school consulting, Lei specializes in planning, program selection, academic background building and enhancement, scholarship interviews, and research coaching for applicants.
Lei has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research paper writing and has successfully coached numerous students to secure graduate offers, as well as fully funded Ph.D. offers from universities such as Brown, USC, Boston University, Columbia, and others.
Sonja Montiel
director of talent development
Sonja Montiel (MA Education) is the co-founder of PEQ Performance Consulting LLC. With over 25 years of experience in higher education and training, Sonja excels at identifying the root causes of automated negative stress responses. As a Positive Intelligence mental fitness coach, she leverages educational practices to guide individuals, families, educators, and teams towards consistently achieving successful outcomes through positive and emotional intelligence strategies.
Sonja's extensive experience includes roles such as admission counselor for the UC system, director of college counseling at a private independent preparatory school, and educational consultant for both domestic and international students. Her leadership in the Western and National Associations for College Admission Counseling (WACAC and NACAC) includes serving as a board member for WACAC and an assembly delegate for NACAC.
Currently, Sonja is a mentor and membership committee member for the International Association for College Admission Counseling, a board member for Conejo Schools Foundation, and VP of Parent Engagement for The Center of Advanced Studies. She also contributes as a writer for LINK for Counselors and AwareNow Magazine, where she serves as the exclusive ambassador of education.
Rainbow Chen
Director of Customer Service
Rainbow has over two decades of experience teaching both Chinese and American students and understands the importance of customer satisfaction and the education of young people. Her extensive knowledge of cross-cultural training, account management, and organizational skills have enabled her to guide Interface students and their families through this process toward the success of the student and beyond. Rainbow’s linguistic training and experience allow her to effectively close the communication gap that is imperative during the application process, allowing the applicant and family to feel comfortable and confident throughout their child’s educational career.
Lei Shen
Associate Director of Customer Service
After several years working with students at Education First in China, Lei Shen came to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in Education. After completion of her studies, she worked at a private high school in Texas before joining the Interface team in 2011. Lei plays a pivotal role in training the customer service team, and her passion for education, cross cultural communications, and customer satisfaction assures the best quality service for Interface students and families.
Dr.MD
Personal Development & Motivation Coach
Dr.MD serves as the Personal Development & Motivation Coach at Interface Education Services, where she spearheads the design and implementation of our Internal Motivation Program—a signature initiative that helps students uncover and strengthen their intrinsic motivation for long-term academic and personal success.
Dr.MD holds a PhD in Psychology with specialized research expertise in stress regulation, learning, and motivation. Her work examines how psychological patterns affect academic performance and how students can develop healthier, more sustainable approaches to achievement. She has published research in top interdisciplinary journals spanning psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, contributing to the scientific understanding of stress regulation and human motivation.
With over 14 years of experience in education and mentorship, she draws upon her interdisciplinary background in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology to create developmentally aligned, research-based programming. Her work blends rigorous psychological theory with practical tools, equipping college-bound students with self-awareness, purpose-driven learning strategies, and a growth mindset.
Her coaching approach is grounded in evidence-based psychological research, translating scientific findings into practical strategies that students can apply immediately. She specializes in helping high-achieving students understand their individual stress patterns, develop effective coping skills, and build resilience for long-term academic success.
At Interface, she leads the creation of customized sessions, workshops, and group discussions that promote self-discovery, autonomy, and values-based decision-making. Through her personalized 1-on-1 student sessions, she applies cognitive and motivational psychology to help students align academic choices with authentic interests and long-term goals.
Prior to joining Interface, she held faculty positions at multiple universities, including Georgia State University, where she mentored students individually, developed performance-improvement strategies, and contributed to student success through her service on recruitment and admissions committees. She also founded student organizations focused on leadership and academic excellence.
She earned her PhD in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was recognized with the Helen Stenner Memorial Essay Award for Best Graduate Student Paper, honoring her outstanding research and academic writing.
Dr.MD provides educational coaching and skill-development services; she is not a licensed psychologist or mental health counselor and does not provide therapy or clinical treatment.
Susan Goodkin
Advisor-Interface Programs
Susan is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University, where she was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar, one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world and awarded to a small number of college graduates.
Susan specializes in helping Interface students find creative and impressive ways to pursue their interests and passions beyond the usual high school activities, to help them stand out from other applicants. Her unique role at Interface is to team with counselors to help their students pursue unusual paths based on their interests and talents and to build an outstanding extracurricular resume necessary to get accepted to the most selective schools.
Susan has an extraordinary success rate helping students get admitted to highly selective colleges. Her students are admitted to the Ivies, Stanford, and MIT at a rate that is 6 times higher than the national acceptance rate!
In the past few years, of the relatively small group of students she works with, she had 16 Stanford acceptances, 9 Harvard acceptances, 14 Yale acceptances, 9 Princeton acceptances, 8 MIT acceptances, 3 Brown acceptances, 5 Columbia acceptances, 10 UPenn acceptances, 2 Dartmouth acceptance, and 6 Cornell acceptances.
Susan’s students also have a remarkable success rate at other highly selective schools including Duke, Vanderbilt, Caltech, Northwestern, Amherst, Georgetown, Berkeley, UCLA, and many more.
Additionally, Susan writes and speaks internationally on education issues, including college planning. Her articles have appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Enquirer, Sacramento Bee, and Houston Chronicle.
Serena Yao
Director of Personnel Administration
Serena Yao holds an MBA from Sun Yat-sen University. She had served as an engineer in the Technical Department of Guangzhou Broadcasting and Television Network Co., Ltd for years. In June 2013, Serena joined Interface and went to the US Headquarter for further study. She is currently the Director of Administration and Human Resources Department. With professional knowledge and strong work ethic, Serena's motivation is to make scientifical and rational evaluation of and plans for human resources for the company in order to enhance the employees' enthusiasm and creativity for their job. Her goal is for the whole team to help every student get into the most selective schools possible by providing the best service for them and their families.
Hope Murtaugh
Special Advisor
Assistant Director of Admission at Princeton University
Assistant Director of College Counseling at Charlotte Country Day School
Associate Member of Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA )
Member of Southern Association of College Admissions Counselors (SACAC)
Member of Overseas Association of College Admissions Counselors (OACAC)
Graduated from Princeton University
Hope is passionate about guiding students to college admissions success. She is an Ivy League admissions expert and received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where she served as an Admission Officer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions.
Over the last 20 years, Hope has taught tens of thousands of students around the world how to optimize their applications to top US and UK colleges and universities. She has seen a 25% higher overall acceptance rate to Ivy League schools compared to the national average among the students she has guided. Many students she has worked with have been admitted to Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, U Penn, Cornell, U Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Brown, Vanderbilt and Wellesley.
Hope's students comment on her calm, assured presence during the stressful college admissions process. Her ability to strategize a student's strongest case for admission and put their authentic strengths into words is among the best in this industry. At the same time, Hope's ability to connect with diverse types of students is remarkable. One mother said that it was as if Hope had "seen my son's soul." Another student, after one meeting with Hope, said, "I've never thought the way that [her] questions made me think."
After working with Hope a student said, "I wanted to express my gratitude for your endless patience and always-helpful advice on everything and anything college related . . . . My applications would not have been the same without your guidance, and I would not be in the place I am in right now without you." Another student said, "I feel like you are not treating me as a mere student, but as your daughter."
Hope believes that students should "live the life that writes the application." Her counseling goals prioritize a student's self-motivation and confidence while demanding high standards for self-awareness and community impact. She will challenge your child to think and feel deeply, all while learning how to express themselves in activities (and essays) that are true to who they are, not as a copy of another student who has achieved success.