Based in New York City and completing his PhD in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Joe is a specialist in ACT/SAT prep and a wide-range of humanities subjects, including AP English Literature and Composition, AP U.S. History, and AP European History. Joe brings to ESM over a decade of experience in teaching and academic mentorship at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels. Most recently, he served as an academic writing consultant in the Columbia University Writing Center, and currently he is an instructor of record in Columbia University’s intensive year-long “Literature Humanities” course. As a researcher in medieval literature, Joe recently published a book chapter titled “Passion and Passionless Love in Dante: Epistola 3 to the Commedia” in a 2024 volume for Palgrave Macmillan. He received his BA from Georgetown University, his MA with distinction from Brooklyn College, and he was a graduate of Regis High School in Manhattan.

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In his approach to mentoring, Joe believes that true learning or understanding—what Aristotle called scientia or “science”—happens when both mentor and student collaborate to make the knowledge of something present, felt, and integrated. Not only the “a-ha,” but really “getting it.” As such, Joe prioritizes connecting with students where they are, both intellectually and personally. He believes that the hard work of writing essays, practicing problem sets, and developing study methods need not be grunt work. Rather, this intellectual cardio can (and should!) be a gateway for deepening one’s subtlety of mind and expanding one’s knowledge and experience of life and the world—for both student and mentor alike.

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Besides reading and studying Dante and other medieval writers, Joe has a lifelong interest in spiritual practice. He also enjoys following the New York Yankees, going to Prospect Park in the morning for “off-leash hours,” and he loves cooking for friends and loved ones.