College Counseling Team

Our counselors are deeply familiar with the college admission process, and they understand how to help students identify the criteria they want in a college and how to present themselves confidently and fully in an application.

At Cate, this process is individualized, deliberate, and comprehensive.

Director of College Counseling — Maude Y. Bond

805-684-4127 x235 / maude_bond@cate.org

BA, Sarah Lawrence
MFA, The New School
Appointed: 2020

Maude Y. Bond joins the Cate community as the director of college counseling. Born in rural West Tennessee, she studied African-American literature, theatre, and writing at Sarah Lawrence College and spent her junior year in Madrid gaining fluency in Spanish. Maude served in Ameri-Corps where she worked with refugee children from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and continued her work with underserved students at New York University’s Gallatin School.

While in New York, Maude worked in admissions at Sarah Lawrence and The New School, where she earned an MFA in creative writing. Maude also led the multicultural recruitment team at Columbia University’s office of admission before joining the college counseling office at The United Nations International School. Maude brings international expertise to Cate and a love of helping students tell their stories and advocate for their values during the application process. Maude spent 14 years in international education and has visited countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Maude comes to Cate from Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles where she spent four years as an upper school dean. Maude is an avid reader; she also enjoys writing poetry, plays, and children’s fiction.

Maude lives on the Mesa with her husband Richard McDonald. She did not take her husband’s last name because she is a passionate feminist, and because she’d rather be a double agent than an old man with a farm. Maude and Richard enjoy dancing, listening to music, traveling and making each other laugh. In case you’re wondering, Maude’s the funny one.

Senior Associate Director of College Counseling — Margot Dorion

805-684-4127 x248 / margot_dorion@cate.org

BA, Colby College
Appointed: 2002

Margot Dorion started her career in education fulfilling the triple-threat duties at a boarding school in Connecticut—teaching history, coaching soccer and tennis, and serving as a dorm parent. Not long into her teaching career, she was asked to consider trying her hand at college counseling—she’s worked in this capacity ever since. The challenge of identifying the nuanced differences in the abundant choices at the higher ed-level, the enjoyment she derives from developing deep and meaningful relationships with her counselees, and the unique and individual process that is required to marry the right school to the right student is a powerfully fulfilling process for Margot.

When she’s not in the College Counseling Office, you may see Margot on her bike training for a road race or preparing for a triathlon. An avid reader, adventurous traveler, and mother of three children, she looks forward to a time when she can get her whole family overseas and around the country to discover new places together.

College Counselor — Amy Giles

805-684-4127 x296 / amy_giles@cate.org

BA, Denison University
Appointed: 2012

Amy Giles worked for several years in event planning and marketing at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2005, the Giles family moved to Santa Barbara, where she joined Marymount of Santa Barbara’s administrative team and worked closely with the Head of School, Board of Trustees, and Admission Director.

Amy and her husband, Major Gifts Director Chris Giles, live in Carpinteria. They have two children who graduated from Cate, Eliza ’13 and Warren ’15, and are now host parents to Daniel Boateng ’22.