About

About Brad Kremer

Most university counselors come to this work through one of two paths: they worked in university admissions, or they transitioned from high school counseling. My path was different.

I spent two decades as a science teacher, department head, curriculum designer, and IB program leader in international schools across four continents, having lived and worked in the US, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Finland, and Cambodia. I’ve sat in the classroom, run the department, built a program from scratch, and led the accreditation process. Before I ever had the title of university counselor, I already understood how international schools work, how IB students are assessed, and how the strongest students develop over time.

That background shapes everything I do at Adansonia.

My Story

I grew up in Kentucky, in a part of the US where international travel was rare. An exchange program in Finland changed that. Volunteering in Senegal changed it further. By the time I took my first international teaching position, at the American School of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I had already learned something that has stayed with me ever since: the most transformative education happens when young people are pushed beyond what feels familiar.

I spent eight years at the International School of Tanganyika in Dar es Salaam, where I served as Science Department Head and designed experiential field courses that took students to the summit of Mount Meru, to the coral ecosystems of Zanzibar, and into the forests of the Usambara Mountains. Those years reinforced something I’d long believed: learning with the deepest impact doesn’t happen at a desk. It happens in the field, in real contexts, with real stakes.

From Tanzania, I moved to Finland to serve as Director of Education at New Nordic School, where I led a team of 20 educational consultants to develop a Pre-K to Grade 12 interdisciplinary curriculum now used by schools in Spain, Indonesia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Uruguay. That role taught me how to build educational systems, not just programs. I also learned how to work across cultures to design something that actually gets used.

In 2021, I joined the Australian International School Phnom Penh as MYP Coordinator, University Counselor, and Science Teacher. I built AISPP’s IB Middle Years Program from the ground up, led the school’s five-year program evaluation, and simultaneously guided students through applications to universities in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and continental Europe. Running an IB program while simultaneously counseling students through the application process gave me an integrated perspective that most counselors simply don’t have.

I am a NACAC member, hold the International University Advocate Professional Certificate from NACAC, and am completing my College Counseling Certificate through UCLA Extension. All of my work follows NACAC’s Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission and IECA’s Principles of Good Practice.

Who I Work With

I founded Adansonia Education to serve two groups of clients who are consistently underserved by the broader market.

Internationally mobile families and third-culture kids.

TCKs are among the most interesting and complex applicants in the university admissions process. They’re also among the most poorly served. Their transcripts are disjointed. Their stories span multiple countries and school systems. Their identities don’t fit neatly into any single national narrative. I know how to help them contextualize their academic profiles, translate their international experience into the language of admissions offices, and craft applications that are honest, precise, and compelling.

I’m also a parent of three TCKs. I understand this from the inside.

International and IB World Schools.

Schools seeking IB MYP authorization, preparing for program evaluation, or building curriculum infrastructure from scratch need consultants who have done this work, not just studied it. I have.

One of the most underutilized tools in international school education is the world just outside the school gates. For fifteen years, across Tanzania and Cambodia, I designed and led experiential learning programs that connected classroom content to real environments, real communities, and real stakes. These weren’t field trips. They were structured educational experiences with clear learning objectives, curriculum alignment, and meaningful student roles.

At the International School of Tanganyika, I took students to the 4,652-meter summit of Mount Meru, a multi-day expedition that built physical resilience, teamwork, and a visceral understanding of high-altitude ecosystems. I established an annual marine biology and environmental science field course on Unguja Island in Zanzibar, where 75 students and 8 teachers engaged directly with coral reef ecology, coastal communities, and conservation challenges. I led week-long biodiversity study tours into the Usambara Mountains of northern Tanzania, one of Africa’s most significant biodiversity hotspots, integrating field science with local ecological knowledge. I also built IST’s Model United Nations program into the school’s largest extracurricular activity, taking more than 60 students in grades 7–12 to conferences in Kenya, South Africa, Jordan, and the Netherlands. These experiences fostered students’ research skills, global awareness, and capacity for structured argumentation.

At the Australian International School Phnom Penh, I continued that work in Southeast Asia. I designed and coordinated learning trips for 125 students across Cambodia that wove together service, culture, history, and environmental education. In Mondulkiri, students engaged in wildlife conservation and service learning with indigenous communities in one of Cambodia’s most ecologically significant provinces. In Sihanoukville, student-led sustainability initiatives connected marine environmental science to community action.

Every one of these programs was conceived, planned, risk-assessed, and coordinated by me: from the curriculum rationale and learning outcomes through to logistics, safety protocols, and post-trip reflection. If your school wants to build or strengthen an experiential education program that is rigorous, safe, and genuinely connected to your curriculum, that is exactly the kind of work I do.

My Philosophy

I don’t believe university admissions counseling begins in Grade 11. The most effective counseling is grounded in years of watching students learn — how they develop intellectually, where they find meaning, and what kind of environment brings out their best thinking. My job is to help students understand themselves clearly enough to make intentional decisions about what comes next, then communicate those decisions with confidence.

At every stage of this process, my commitment is to the student. Not to any university, not to placement statistics, and not to the kind of counseling that tells a student who they should be rather than helping them articulate who they already are.

Let’s Talk

Adansonia serves families and schools remotely worldwide, with a current focus on Southeast Asia.

If you’re a family beginning to think about university applications, or a school looking for experienced IB consulting support, I’d welcome a conversation.