College Counseling Team
College Counseling | Counseling Team | College Matriculation | Counseling News
Meet The Team
To learn more about our College Counseling Team, click their pictures below.
College Counseling | Counseling Team | College Matriculation | Counseling News
To learn more about our College Counseling Team, click their pictures below.
Justin Felhaber: Assistant Director of College Counseling
Justin is a former NCAA student-athlete who helps students align their college search with their athletic aspirations. He brings his four years of diverse experience as an English Teacher, Hockey Coach, and Team Dean to offer students a holistic perspective throughout their college search. As a proud alumnus (Class of 2014), he is passionate about giving back to Northwood and cultivating a positive experience for current Huskies who are planning for the next step in their lives. He has guided students pursuing opportunities across all NCAA divisions and serves as a focal point for Northwood seniors rigorous college essay process.
Justin earned his B.A. from Hamilton College and was a Men’s Ice Hockey captain for the Continentals during his senior year.
David McCauley: Director of College Counseling
In David’s support of Northwood students’ post-secondary school goals, he draws from his own student athlete pursuits where he lettered in track and football at Colby College and went on to play and coach in Madrid, Spain with the Madrid Panthers in the Spanish League of American Football. His tenure as a coach of over 30 years covers high school basketball, baseball, football and track, college football and, with a whistle around his neck, he spent 22 years as a boys’ IAABO basketball official and 9 years as an ECAC men’s basketball official.
In the world of college admission, David has worked in offices at Colby, RPI, Hamilton, Siena and Creighton. At Creighton, as the director of international admission, David also served as the admission liaison for the Jays’ basketball and soccer teams. He travelled Europe and Latin America with teams as part of the recruitment campaign of student athletes.
David has presented on college admissions and admissions for student athletes at the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, the Fulbright Ctr in Norway, and Finland as well as the EducationUSA Forum in Washington, DC as well as its offices in Buenos Aires, Santiago (Chile), Bogotá, and Lima, Perú. David speaks Spanish as his second language and just enough Portuguese, French, German and Chinese to get himself out of trouble. Since 2010, he has led the college office efforts at Berkshire School in Sheffield Massachusetts, Beijing National Day School, and Beijing High School Number 4. During his time in China, he organized tours of the PRC for 40+ USA colleges and universities, and played host to over 250 yearly admission visitors from colleges and universities across the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia and Europe. In recent years, David has served as a consultant for 80+ USA colleges and universities for Chinese secondary school applications and was selected to an advisory group of college counselors at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has been quoted as a primary source of information for global and higher education articles written by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Lawlor Group, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
David serves as the director of college counseling, the director of international student services, is a member of the NCAA compliance team, and he supports international admission. Under David’s leadership, the college office’s fundamental work is to introduce Northwood students to colleges that fit them well considering academic interests and record, desire to play a sport in college, geographic preferences and personality. The goal is for all students is to enroll at institutions where they will make great use of their Northwood preparation, which translates to success in the classroom and life beyond their college pursuits.
Andrea Farrell: Assistant Director of College Counseling
Andrea is returning to the math department at Northwood this year to begin her eleventh year of teaching. In her career, she has taught Algebra 1 through AP Calculus and AP Statistics, having taken some time away from the classroom to raise her young family. Andrea graduated from Middlebury College in 2004 with a degree in Environmental Studies. Her love of the outdoors has taken her on adventures to 4 continents, ultimately bringing her back to her hometown of Lake Placid where she lives with her family. These days, when she isn’t in the classroom you can find her on hiking, skiing, and running adventures closer to home.
Andrea is in her second year in the college counseling office at Northwood, where she guides students through every step of the college process with a focus on helping students find their best-fit college path. Prior to this role, she worked in college counseling at the National Sports Academy, supporting high-performing student-athletes in achieving their academic and athletic goals.
Simon Shergold: Assistant Director of College Counseling
Simon Shergold joined Northwood in 2022, returning to the Adirondacks with his family. A native of the UK, Simon had been visiting here for many years and, in fact, worked at Northwood as a summer camp soccer coach over 20 years ago. As well as being a History teacher and in charge of Soccer Operations, Simon joined the college office in 2024 and has really enjoyed learning all the intricacies of the US college system. As well as guiding a group of counselees through the process, Simon has helped more generally in the drafting and finalizing of their college essays and, from April 2025, will be working with Justin Felhaber to implement the college essay project into classroom lessons at the end of each school year.
Sandra S. Baker: Executive Assistant, College Counseling
Sandy Baker brings varied administrative office experiences to her position as Executive Assistant to College Counseling and Registrar. She previously served in high school and college academic support and registrar positions and has worked as a legal assistant for two area law firms. Her work with the college counselors and Northwood’s students is both rewarding and enjoyable. Sandy is a proud native Adirondacker, born and raised in Saranac Lake, where she lives with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Teddy.
