SDI Faculty

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Bill Batterman -Associate Director of Debate at Woodward Academy - Bill is one of high school debate’s most passionate coaches and summer workshop instructors. Returning for his third summer in East Lansing, he will once again be heading the Hoya-Spartan Scholars program. The founder of The3NR.com, Bill has been honored with the WDCA Coach of the Year Award, the NDCA Service Award, and the NDCA Educator of the Year and is currently a member of both the NDCA Board and the TOC Advisory Committee. Competitively, Bill has coached top speakers at many of the country’s most prestigious tournaments including Wake Forest, St. Mark’s, and Harvard and has coached students to the elimination rounds of every major national tournament. In less than two years at Woodward, Bill’s teams have already won the Georgia State Championship, reached the elimination rounds of the TOC, and won the Heart of Texas Invitational at St. Mark’s. Students that have worked with him during the summer celebrate his enthusiasm, work ethic, and dedication to their improvement. Bill will be teaching in the Hoya-Spartan program.

Maggie Berthiaume - Director of Debate at Woodward Academy - Maggie is joining us for the first time this summer. As debater for Dartmouth College, she reached the quarterfinals of the NDT and the semifinals of CEDA Nationals in 2005. She is a 2012 inductee to the Key Coaches of the Barkley Forum at Emory University and is a five year member of the NDCA Board. In 2011-2012, Maggie coached the NDCA National Champions, the champions of St. Mark's, UGA, and Vestavia, and the top speaker at the NDCA Championship and the Tournament of Champions. Her teams have twice won the Georgia State Championship. She is also the former Director of Debate at Chattahoochee and Lexington.

Aniela Butler - Debater at Michigan State University - Aniela is in her first year at Michigan State University, where she is majoring in International Relations. This year she was a semi-finalist at the Illinois State University tournament, as well as a quarter-finalist in the Freshman Breakout and the University of Kentucky tournament. During her senior year at Juan Diego Catholic, she won the Alta tournament and qualified for the Tournament of Champions.

Cat Duffy - Grad Assistant at Wake Forest, Assistant Coach at Pace Academy - Cat is currently pursuing her Masters in Communication at Wake Forest and coaching their debate team. This year her teams have reached the outrounds of major tournaments such as Georgia State and Kentucky. In addition to coaching at the collegiate level, she is an assistant coach for Pace Academy. She has helped Pace field multiple teams to outrounds of all major high school tournaments. Before going to Wake, Cat was an assistant coach at Michigan State University and helped coach the 2010 NDT Champions from MSU.

Jonah Feldman - Director of Debate at the University of California, Berkeley - Jonah Feldman is the Director of Debate at the University of California, Berkeley. At Cal he has led teams to first place finishes at the Georgia State tournament and the Dartmouth Round Robin, the Quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament, and the semifinals of Wake Forest, Northwestern, USC, and Harvard. Jonah has coached at Harvard, Texas, Dartmouth, and Northwestern and has twice coached NDT finalists. He has 13 years of experience teaching at debate camps.

Katie Gjerpen - Director of Debate at Niles North High School - Katie Gjerpen is a teacher and the Head Debate Coach at Niles North High School where she is in her first year of building a new program. Prior to Niles North, Katie was the Assistant Director of Debate at Lexington High School. At Lexington, she helped qualify five teams to the 2011 Tournament of Champions, culminating in a 2nd place finish. Her teams won the Harvard and University of Michigan Seniors Round Robins and the Blake, Lakela vnd and Pennsbury tournaments, in addition to appearing in late elimination rounds of most national tournaments and winning numerous speaker awards. Katie also coached Groves High School to a 2009-10 Michigan State Championship.

Ryan Galloway - Director of Debate at Samford University - Ryan debated for George Mason University, and qualified for the National Debate Tournament three times, advancing to the elimination rounds as a junior and senior. Ryan received numerous top ten speaker awards at major national circuit tournaments including the top speaker award at the 1993 Kentucky Tournament. As a coach, Ryan has coached teams to the late elimination rounds of every major national tournament in the country, including numerous teams to the deep elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament. In 2005, Ryan coached the National Debater of the Year. Ryan is currently an associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at Samford University. He "enjoys" golf, but is not used to actually seeing the ball travel very far or go in the hole.

Aaron Hardy - Debate Coach at Northwestern University - Aaron is a coach for Northwestern University and the founder of paperlessdebate.com. After a successful career debating for Michigan State, he has gone on to coach multiple first-round bids to the National Debate Tournament. Well-respected as a judge and argument coach, he also recently became the youngest ever recipient of the Lucy Keel Lifetime Service Award for his innovations in paperless debating, such as Verbatim and PaDS. As the former policy debate coach at Whitman, he was responsible for the first large debate program in the country going paperless, and has helped countless other programs follow suit.

Casey Harrigan - Director of Debate at Michigan State University - Casey Harrigan joined the Honors College in July 2011. He received his MA in Communication from Wake Forest University in 2008 and BA in International Relations from Michigan State University in 2006, where he also won the National Debate Tournament as a member of MSU’s Debate Team. Before returning to MSU, Casey was the Associate Director of Debate at the University of Georgia and is originally from Holland, Michigan.

Scott Harris - Director of Debate at the University of Kansas - During the last fifteen years at the University of Kansas, Scott has coached numerous first round bid recipients and multiple NDT semi-finalists. He is widely respected as one of the most innovative argument coaches in college debate and in 2010, won the National Debate Tournament. Scott has led dozens of summer institute labs at the Michigan Classic and the Jayhawk Debate Institute. His creative debate mind and unparalleled passion for debate competition have earned him the reputation as one of the top institute instructors anywhere. In 2006, Scott's program won the NDT Varsity Sweepstakes and Scott was personally honored by the NDT with the George Ziegelmueller Award for coaching and teaching excellence.

Sharon Kann - Debater at the University of Iowa - Sharon is in her second year at the University of Iowa, where she is majoring in English. As a freshman she won the Viking Debates at Augustana College and qualified for the National Debate Tournament. This year, she was in the finals of several regional tournaments, as well as participating in elimination rounds at the Texas Swings and the University of Texas. Prior to college, she attended Cedar Rapids Washington High School where she was a two-time State Champion, three-time National Qualifier (with a 5th place finish and 7th place speaker award her senior year), and a two-time qualifier to the Tournament of Champions.

Tim Mahoney - Debate Coach at the St. Marks School of Texas - Coach of the 2002 NFL National Champions and 2002 Tournament of Champion Finalists. As a college debater Tim advanced to the final round of 10 tournaments, winning seven of them. As a college coach his teams reached the elimination rounds at 9 consecutive CEDA National tournaments, and he qualified teams for the NDT every year after the merger. In his last year of college coaching, his top team was in the quarter finals of both the NDT and CEDA Nationals.

Eric Morris - Missouri State University - Director of Forensics - Eric is the current director of the Missouri State Debate Institute, a former director of the Jayhawk Debate Institute, and a tenured faculty member at Missouri State. As a debater, he reached the final round of CEDA Nationals. His coaching record includes a CEDA National Championship (1991), NDT & CEDA semifinals (2008), NDT & CEDA top speakers (2008), 7 straight years of NDT elims (2006-2012), three 1st first round NDT bids, and the NDT Coach of the Year award (2008). Each of the debaters receiving these awards accelerated dramatically after starting college debate (none were TOC elim participants). Roughly 90% of his long term debaters (2+ years) have moved to or complete graduate/law programs.

Jonathan Paul - Director of Debate at Georgetown University - Jonathan is a 2002 NDT Champion. As a debate coach at Greenhill, he coached TOC champions in 2006 and 2008, leading his students to victory at every major invitational along the way. In his two years as an assistant coach at Northwestern and UC-Berkeley, he coached the 2003 and 2004 Copeland Award winners, the 2003 NDT Champions, and the 2004 NDT Top Speaker. As the Director of Debate at Georgetown University, the team of Richard Day and Andrew Markoff reached the octafinals of Harvard University's college tournament, the first all-freshman team to do so since 1992. At the California Swing, two teams of underclassmen cleared at both tournaments, a feat unmatched in Georgetown since the early 1990s. Jonathan will be teaching in the Hoya-Spartan program.

Will Repko - Michigan State University Head Debate Coach - - Will is the founder of the SDI. He joined Michigan State University's staff after coaching at East Lansing High School where his teams won several Michigan State Championships and the 1995 NCFL National Championship. Will's success has continued in his college coaching career where he has catapaulted Michigan State to an era of national prominence and excellence,including national championships in 2004, 2006, and 2010. Will was named the 2000 College Coach of the Year.Will will be teaching in the Hoya-Spartan program at the Georgetown half and in the Sophomore program at the SDI.

Abby Schirmer - Director of Debate at Stratford Academy -Abby Schirmer is the director of debate at Stratford Academy where she has coached teams to the late elimination rounds of many national tournaments in the country including; Wake Forest, Greenhill, St. Marks, the Glenbrooks, MBA, Emory, Harvard and the NDCA. This past year, her team won the Woodward tournament and was one of the youngest teams to qualify for the Tournament of Champions In 2011, Abby was named Rising Star by the NDCA, an award given to the top debate coach in the country in their first through third years of coaching. Prior to coaching high school, Abby debated for four years at Michigan State University.

Dave Strauss - Michigan State University Assistant Debate Coach - Dave is currently an assistant coach at MSU and was part of one of the most successful two-person debate teams in history. As a sophomore, Dave and his partner became the youngest of only four teams to ever reach the "final four" of both CEDA and NDT in the same year. As a senior, he was part of the only team in the 58 year history of the National Debate Tournament to advance to the elimination rounds of the NDT four times as an intact pair. He won four tournaments in 2004, including the National Debate Tournament.

Carly Wunderlich -Michigan State University Program/Events Coordiantor -Carly Wunderlich is currently a Debate Coach at Michigan State University where, as a student in 2010, she also won the National Debate Tournament. She has previously worked at the Spartan Debate Institute and the Georgia Debate Institutes. Carly will be teaching in the Hoya-Spartan program.

Miranda Ehrlich - Assistant Debate Coach at Wayzata High School - Miranda is a sophomore debater at the University of Minnesota, majoring in Political Science. During her freshman year of college, Miranda qualified for the National Debate Tournament. So far during the 2012-2013 season, Miranda has been a double-octofinalist at the Georgia State University Tournament and the University of Kentucky Tournament. She also won the University of Northern Iowa tournament. Prior to college, Miranda was a finalist in the Minnesota State Debate Tournament her senior year. Miranda enjoys working with high school debaters and is excited for camp!

Paul Johnson - Associate Director of Debate at the University of Pittsburgh - Paul has coached debate at the University of Iowa, where he is finishing his Ph.D in rhetorical studies and where he has helped the team into the elims of most major national tournaments this year, He is well regarded as a critic, often judging the late elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament and was one of the top ten "most preferred" judges in the pool at the 2008 Shirley Classic. As a debater at the University of Pittsburgh, Paul reached the outrounds of major national tournaments . He then attended Wake Forest University, and as an assistant coach helped Wake CH reach the finals of the NDT.

Ruth Kay - Director of Debate at Detroit Country Day School - Ruth brings to SDI over 20 years of coaching experience along with competitive experience at the high school and college level. Ruth's teams have consistently been in the late elimination rounds of local and national tournaments along with qualifying for the TOC and winning the State Championship in Michigan. She has also served as a member and two-time chair of the National Topic Selection Wording Committee.

Sara Kirsch - Master of Art Candidate at Brandeis University, Assistant Debate Coach at Lexington High School - This is Sara's first year assisting Lexington High School. She has previously coached nationally competitive teams at Wylie E. Groves High School, and Brother Rice High School; assisting Brother Rice to qualify to the Tournament of Champions in 2011. Sara attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, where she won the University of Michigan Invitational and Round Robin, Detroit Country Day, Michigan State, and Michigan Varsity State tournaments. She was a finalist at the New Trier invitational, a semi-finalist at St. Marks, and the Glenbrooks, a quarter-finalist at MBA, and Harvard, and an octo-finalist at Greenhill and the 2007 Tournament of Champions. As an undergraduate Sara briefly debated at Emory and Michigan State University where she reached the quarter-finals of the Freshman-Sophomore National tournament. Sara has previously instructing at the University of Michigan's debate institute, and this is her second year instructing at the Spartan Debate Institute.

John Lawson - Assistant Director of Debate at Groves High School - John directs the novice debate program at Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan. He coached a National Catholic Forensic League Champion in 1998, five Class A Michigan Debate Champions and four Michigan Novice State Champions. His teams regularly reach late elimination rounds at major Michigan and regional invitationals. John has directed coaches seminars at the SDI, MNDI and the Michigan Classic. He debated in both high school and college, and now has 32 years of high school coaching experience, including teaching at the SDI and MNDI.

Austin Layton - Debater at the University of Georgia - Austin is a fourth-year debater at the University of Georgia. He has previously taught at the Georgia Debate Institutes, and this will be his first year teaching at the SDI. While at Georgia, Austin received a first round bid, awarded to the top 16 teams in country, to the National Debate Tournament. He has also reached the elimination rounds of many national tournaments, including the quarterfinals of the University of Kentucky tournament. In high school, he qualified to the Tournament of Champions in both his junior and senior year. As a coach, he has helped coach Johns Creek High School and Stratford Academy to elimination rounds at national tournaments.

Jeremy Hammond - Head Debate Coach at Pine Crest High School - Jeremy Hammond is the Head Debate Coach for Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale Fl. Jeremy debated for Michigan State University from 2004-2008, where he was named a Co-Champion. Jeremy has coached numerous teams on the high school level including a quarterfinalist of the Tournament of Champions in 2007. During the 2010-2011 season Jeremy’s team reached late elimination rounds of every major high school tournament. At Pine Crest his teams have reached elimination rounds at every tournament attended (so far). Jeremy was also an assistant coach at Michigan State University from 2009-2011, where his accomplishments included coaching the 2009 National Debate Tournament champion and the 2010 Wayne State Tournament Champions.

Ryan Nierman - Assistant Coach at Groves High School - Ryan is currently pursuing his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Oakland University. He debated for both the University of Michigan – Dearborn and University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. He is currently the Co-Director of Debate at Wylie E. Groves High School, where he has been coaching for the past six years. During his time at Groves, his teams have reached out rounds of various national tournaments including Wake Forest, Niles, New Trier, Harvard, Lexington, and Blake, received invites to the University of Michigan Round Robin, and qualified to the 2008 Tournament of Champions. His teams have also won various in state tournaments, including the 2008 and 2010 Varsity State Tournaments.

Rohan Sadagopal - Debater at the University of Minnesota - Rohan is an assistant coach at Minneapolis South High School and a debater at the University of Minnesota, He previously worked at Edina High School, with teams reaching elimination rounds and receiving speaker awards at many tournaments, including Greenhill, St Marks, Michigan, Glenbrooks, Blake, MBA, Emory, Harvard, and the TOC. In that time, Edina has qualified teams to both NFL Nationals and the TOC and has reached the final round of the Minnesota State Tournament twice, winning the tournament in 2012. He has previously worked at the Minnesota Debate and Advocacy Workshop.

Mimi Sergent-Leventhal - Debater at the University of California, Berkeley - Mimi Sergent-Leventhal debated at Edina High School in Minnesota where she reached elimination rounds at several tournaments including the TOC. She is currently a first year at the University of California, Berkeley.

Matt Struth - Grad Assistant at Wake Forest - Matt is in his first year of pursuing a Masters in Communication at Wake Forest. Previously, he coached at Liberty University where his teams reached elimination rounds of every major national tournament including the NDT. As a debater at the University of Mary Washington he was in the quarters of the NDT and won the ADA national championship. He has helped coached multiple high school teams, including Bronx Science and Mountain Brook, into elimination rounds at the TOC.

Sarah Weiner - Debater at the University of California, Berkeley - Sarah is a senior debater at the University of California, Berkeley. She has debated in the elimination rounds of every major national tournament, including the reaching the semifinals of USC and winning the Pittsburgh Round Robin. In high school, Sarah reached the final round of NFL nationals. Sarah is currently at assistant debate coach at the Harker School in San Jose, a new and rapidly-growing debate program.

Check back soon for updated staff information!!!