Lumina Prep Founders

Mark Alfano co-founded Lumina Prep to make the techniques and benefits of private tutors available to a broader set of students.

Mr. Alfano studied philosophy and educational psychology at Princeton University and graduated with honors. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy at the City University of New York, where he teaches courses for undergraduates.

Mark is a professional educator with 10 years of experience tutoring the SAT. He has tutored on behalf of The Princeton Review and Ivy Bound, in addition to freelancing. While working at Ivy Bound, Mark both designed educational materials to help students prepare for the SAT and instituted a tutor training program for new tutors. His students consistently outperform the industry benchmark for improved scores, and he has had numerous requests to tutor across America and internationally. Mark routinely interacts with premier educational consultants and counselors, including Howard Greene, Ginger Miller, and Frank Leana.

Edward Alfano co-founded Lumina Prep and manages its corporate strategy and business development. He also designed the grading algorithms and quantitative tools for creating the taxonomy. Edward graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University, where he studied Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. During his academic career, Edward supported patent reexamination projects at Columbia Law School.

Edward is an experienced management consultant. He currently works at Extera Partners, where he advises startups and holds interim management positions. At Extera, Edward models market opportunities, conducts business development outreach, and performs due diligence on in-licensing opportunities.

Previously, Edward worked at Monitor Group, in both its consulting practice and its venture capital fund. Through Monitor's consulting practice, Edward advised multinational corporations on growth strategies and technology assessment. He also advised Monitor Venture's portfolio companies and evaluated investment opportunities for the fund.