Michael Dodge grew up on a farm in the northeast United States, where he learned to repair machinery and buildings from an early age. To pay his university tuition, Mike worked in his uncle’s commercial construction business, starting as a laborer and working his way to site foreman. Mike earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History, and continued to work in the family construction business following his University graduation. After eleven years in commercial construction, Mike switched to residential construction where he worked for another eight years. During his nineteen years working in the trades, Mike learned first hand about building with wood, metal, and masonry as well as plumbing, electrical, cabinetry, painting, window glazing, HVAC, and virtually every other aspect of construction. Mike also had responsibilities managing workplace safety, training new employees, evaluating and creating designs and drawings, and coordinating subcontractor work schedules.

After leaving the construction industry, Mike worked for two years in private security before entering the petroleum business where he spent eight years as a business analyst and supervisor. As the Pricing, Transportation, and Supply Supervisor, Mike led a team of twelve people who were responsible for the delivery, sale, and pricing of motor fuels at almost 2000 petrol stations along the United States’ East Coast. During his time in the petroleum industry, Mike and his team averaged approximately $3B USD of annual revenue, making that team one of the largest contributors to the company’s profits.

In 2018 Mike accepted a position as Director of Facilities at Taipei American School, where he oversaw an annual operating and capital budget of approximately $10M-$14M USD. In addition to the Facilities and Maintenance Departments, Mike had oversight of the school’s Transportation, Food Services, Security, and Construction operations, totaling approximately 200 employees.

As a member of the school’s Crisis Response team, Mike had a sizable role in the school’s emergency preparations. In 2019, Mike created the school’s risk assessment protocols, which were activated only several months later for the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike and his teams were the primary parties responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating the school’s COVID-19 safety protocols. On an ongoing basis, Mike was also responsible for creating and publishing Standard Operating Procedures and safety protocols for the departments under his supervision. Mike also introduced cross-training programs among department employees to reduce the impact of staff absences.

In 2022, Mike left Taipei American School to offer his skills to schools around the world as an independent consultant.

Dr. Grace Cheng Dodge is an experienced school administrator, college counselor, and college admissions professional, with specialized knowledge of the selective admissions process of colleges and universities in the United States.

Grace is retired as Head of School of Taipei American School, Taipei, Taiwan. She is also the former Director of Admissions at Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA, USA). Prior to joining Wellesley in 2015, she was an Associate Director of Admissions at Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, USA), having first joined the Harvard Admissions Office in 2002. From 2009-2012, she took a professional leave from Harvard and spent three years at Taipei American School as a college counselor and Director of College Counseling. Grace returned to the TAS College Counseling office in 2018 before assuming the position of Deputy Head of School in the 2019-20 academic year. Grace served as Interim Head of School during 2020-2021 before becoming the 15th Head of School of Taipei American School from 2021-2023.

Prior to returning to Taiwan, Grace also spent three years as a US State Department/College Board Overseas Schools Program traveler to western Europe. In this capacity, she traveled to various International and American schools in Austria, Germany, Malta, Ireland, and the UK, presenting to lower, middle, and upper school communities of US expatriate children and parents on developing the whole child and mastering the building blocks to being a successful student in an American school system.

Grace has been a presenter at various ECIS and EARCOS conferences, and has presented at various National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) conferences and multiple national College Board Forums. Grace was Chair-Elect of the New England College Board Regional Council before relocating to Taiwan in 2018. Grace spent over 10 summers on the faculty of the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions, working with counselors and school administrators in workshop topics such as recommendation letter writing, essay writing, crafting the high school profile, international student admissions, and soft skills important in the holistic college process. She has extensive public presentation experience, and has been invited to lead dozens of workshops and case studies for counselors, parents, and students all over the world.

Having evaluated thousands of admissions applications and trained scores of college application readers, Grace deeply understands the concept of a holistic secondary school education and college “fit”, and has shared her expertise with students and families around the world for the past two decades. Grace currently serves on the Board of Directors of Global Online Academy.

Grace is a graduate of Harvard University with a cum laude degree in applied mathematics. She holds an MS in accounting, an MBA, and an EdD from Northeastern University. She is certified as a PreK-12 administrator by the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Prior to entering the field of education, she was employed by PwC LLP and she remains a licensed CPA in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Her first assurance engagements included those of auditing independent schools in New England.