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.

Mark studied philosophy and educational psychology at Princeton University and graduated with honors. He recently earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

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, David Thomas, and Evan Forster.

Edward Alfano co-founded Lumina Prep and manages its corporate strategy and business development. He also invented 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. He is currently pursuing an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management and an SM from MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering.

Edward was recently the Director of Business Development at BioAssets Development Corporation. In this capacity, he modeled acquisition terms and recommended negotiation tactics for the sale of the company. Cephalon acquired BioAssets for $42.5 MM plus undisclosed milestone payments. Edward also was responsible for project management for a Phase II clinical trial in Australia and managing the company's patent prosecution.

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.