About Us
Brennan Barnard
Brennan Barnard is the College Counseling Advisor at Khan Lab School, CA. He is also the College Admissions Program Advisor with the Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Director of College Counseling for the College Guidance Network. He is the co-owner of Educational Futures, an independent educational consulting business. Brennan was the founding Director of College Counseling for US Performance Academy, an on-line school for elite athletes. During over two decades in education, he has worked as a teacher, coach, dorm parent, admission officer, counselor and administrator at a number of independent high schools and colleges. Brennan served on the Executive Committee for the Character Collaborative, and was a member of the Advisory Board for the New Hampshire College and University Council’s New Hampshire Scholars Program.
A contributing writer for Forbes.com, he has written about college admission for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Inside Higher Ed, Thrive Global, HuffPost, San Francisco Examiner, New York Times, Concord Monitor, Journal of College Admission and other publications. He has also been featured in articles in the Boston Globe and Associated Press and an occasional featured guest on New Hampshire Public Radio. He has been interviewed about college admission by New England Cable News, New York Living, and ABC News. Brennan was a New England Association of College Admission Counselors Professional of the Year for 2017 and honored with the Association for College Counselors in Independent Schools’ Excellence in Counseling Award in 2021. He is co-author of, "The Truth About College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together" and the companion guide “The Truth about College Admission Workbook: A Family Organizer for Your College Search.” His third book, “Powerful College Admission Essays: A Guide To Telling Your Story” will be released in September 2025.
A native of suburban Philadelphia and practicing Quaker, Brennan is a graduate of Westtown Friends School. Brennan earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from The University of Vermont. This father of two college students lives in Hopkinton, New Hampshire where he is a volunteer firefighter.
Chauncy Gardner
Chauncy is a lifelong educator with over 25 years of experience in independent schools. She worked for many years in the classroom as an English teacher, then as a school administrator, and then, for a decade, as Co-Director of College Counseling at Sun Valley Community School in Sun Valley, Idaho. During her time at SVCS, Chauncy participated in numerous professional development opportunities for college counselors, including college-sponsored visits for counselors, industry conferences, and seminars with college admissions experts and authors from a variety of areas of expertise. She served as a Committee Chair with the Character Collaborative and was an active member of NACAC, ACCIS, and PNACAC. She currently serves as a pro-bono advisor for the Pine Ridge Girls School, which exists to create opportunities for Lakota girls on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, as well as the College Counseling Advisor for The Space Idaho, a non-profit that provides individualized academic support so that all students can overcome barriers, discover their learning power, and access an exceptional education. Chauncy is also the founder & owner of Lighthouse College Advisors, LLC, an independent college counseling organization that supports students and families through all stages of the college search and application process with a focus on strategic authenticity.
In the three years between her departure from SVCS and her founding of Lighthouse College Advisors, Chauncy worked as a professional writer for Tugboat Institute, a membership organization for CEOs of private, purpose-driven companies. During this time, she came to understand the power of a people-first perspective. Through her work interviewing and writing articles with dozens of CEOs for Tugboat’s Evergreen Journal, she was inspired by the power of a company that truly cares for its employees, that creates meaningful opportunities for them, and that is willing to put purpose before profit when necessary. This approach to business not only improves the lives of employees and their families, but also those of their suppliers, customers, and communities.
Chauncy is a native of Wawa, a suburb of Philadelphia, and has lived in Sun Valley, Idaho for the past 23 years. She earned a BA in French and English from Colgate University, and an MA in French Literature from New York University. She is passionate about travel and has frequently traveled with students for language-based, college-based, or cultural trips, both abroad and throughout the United States. She loves the outdoors, reading, and writing, and has two college-aged children.
Contact us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!