Editor Profile Dr. Shirley Tokheim

My favorite thing to do is listen to others tell their stories. As an English major at UC Berkeley, I discovered my love of literature. After all, literature is other people's stories. Reading about Jake's turmoil in The Sun Also Rises or Edna's restlessness in The Awakening rivals listening to a high school senior's insistence that she keep her inbox empty or to a seasoned military vet's description of his intense moments in Iraq.

Upon my graduation, friends and family asked, "What will you do with your degree?" The obvious answer—to me—was to return to school. After earning an MA in Education from Stanford, I became a high school English teacher. I loved discussing literature and teaching the writing process. I then parlayed my teaching experience into a successful tutoring business, which included mentoring clients in telling their stories as they wrote their college and graduate application essays.

Along the way, I professionally edited others' writing. I worked as the first editor for Upside, a prestigious start-up-technology magazine in the mid-1990s, and I copy edited the technology book The Internet Bubble (1999). I also wrote advertising copy and edited technical writing for numerous bourgeoning dot.coms.

Because I love school (and writing graduate application essays), I entered a doctoral program in Education at UC Berkeley in 2002 to follow my passion for school reform. There I refined my writing and editing skills when I wrote lengthy papers and a dissertation. After graduation in 2007, I faced that lingering question once again: "What will you do with your degree?"

The answer? Do what you love. It turns out that what I loved most about my doctoral program was collecting data for my research by gathering others' stories and then turning those stories into structured writing. I bring that passion to Accepted.

Before I joined Accepted in 2008, my clients had been accepted to top-tier graduate programs, including Stanford's GSB, Harvard Business School, UC Berkeley's Haas, Columbia Business School, University of Chicago GSB, Tufts, Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and UCSF School of Medicine.

Would you like to work with Shirley on your application? Just fill out an inquiry including any information you think will be helpful. Shirley will contact you ASAP.