Our Team
Peter Ratzan
Peter Ratzan is president of Your College Concierge. The firm, based in Weston and founded in 2007, helps families throughout the U.S. and beyond with the challenges of applying to and paying for college. Peter is a former high school social studies teacher at RansomEverglades School in Miami, his alma mater. He also served for three years as a guidance counselor to 12th grade students at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, helping to prepare students for the transition to college. Peter volunteers his time with Take Stock in Children, a mentoring program for at-risk youth, as a mentor and as a member of its Corporate Council. He was named the 2020 Mentor of the Year. Prior to founding Your College Concierge, Peter worked for 12 years in corporate America, including 9 years at Motorola. During these years Peter noticed first-hand the challenges faced by “forgotten middle class” families in paying the ever-rising costs of college. Peter holds a BA from Tufts University, and an MBA and MA (International Affairs) from The George Washington University. He and his wife, Jill, live in Plantation. Peter loves to play tennis and golf on Saturdays and cheer for the Miami Dolphins on Sundays.
Jill Ratzan
As previously mentioned by Jill, Jill is both Peter’s business partner AND his better half. She’s also a proven business builder, communicator and problem solver who has hired, developed and coached literally thousands of recent college grads, employees and entrepreneurs on multiple continents. Jill spent 12 years with Discovery Channel, plucked straight from graduate school in 1995 to build their college internship program. She was hire # 425, and by the time she left in 2007, she had personally hired & trained more than 1,200 recent college grads, and opened 3 offices on 3 different continents.. She has co-written two books on higher education and is currently working on a third. She was also the founder and principal of Weston Yoga, Weston Florida’s first yoga school. Jill is a qualified administrator and interpreter of multiple interest and personality assessments, but prefers to stick with The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, a personality assessment that categorizes behavior based on preferences and can be a reliable guide for college major choice and career selection.
Jill graduated from Tufts University where, according to her parents, she majored in Peter (which is not true). After Tufts and a brief stint waiting tables at Houston’s, Jill got her MBA from American University where she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow.
Carla Holness
Carla Holness is a professional with more than 20 years experience in higher education. She grew up in Western Massachusetts and graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (formerly North Adams State College). Carla landed in Florida in 2000 and hasn’t looked back at those cold New England winters since she arrived.
After many years working in Admissions at both public and private colleges, Carla transitioned to the “dark side” (Student Loans). She continued her work in higher education on the financial aid side of the house as a professional with Nellie Mae, Sallie Mae and SunTrust. A shift in the student loan industry gave Carla an opportunity to return to the wonderful world of admission where she had the opportunity to continue to assist students and their families with the process of choosing the right college or university.
In her spare time, Carla loves spending time with her husband, Dennis and friends, traveling and dancing. She has a great sense of humor and believes that having a positive spirit in all circumstances is important. She is passionate about her work as a higher education professional and knows she can make a (positive) difference to those she interacts with.
Ali Dorfman
Ali spent close to 2 decades as a network TV producer, predominantly for CBS News. She has produced everything from breaking news to politics to entertainment to human interest and everything in between. Ali has worked side by side with some of the major network news anchors of our time and spent time on the road covering many of the groundbreaking news stories of the past 20 years.
After starting a family and moving from NYC to the suburbs, Ali dove into her entrepreneurial side and started a personalized gift business, a company that showcased women owned businesses, and consulted with various other women owned businesses. As the mom of two teenage girls, Ali is in the thick of the college world, and she is now our head of content and strategy. She is an ideas machine and brings her storytelling background to Your College Concierge.
Ali has a BA from The University of Maryland and a Law Degree from Brooklyn Law School. She lives in Westport, CT with her husband Peter, 2 girls Emme & Kylie, and 2 furry friends Bode & Ozzie. When she is not chauffeuring her kids to soccer practice she is running by the beach or skiing in Colorado.
Karen Schwartz
Karen has kept Peter organized for over 10 years, managing the office (including making sure the candy bowl is filled), putting out fires and scheduling all client meetings. She earned her BA in Law and Society at American University, where she met her husband, Wayne. In her spare time she enjoys listening to live music, traveling, and playing pickleball on the courts at Weston Racquet Club.