Lincoln Douglas Debate Faculty
Aaron Timmons, LD Debate Director
Nearly ten years ago Mr. Timmons was named one of the Top Ten Debate Coaches of the Century. This shouldn't be shocking considering his students have won nearly every national tournament in the country including Emory, Stanford, and St. Marks. This would be quite an accomplishment for anyone but for Aaron in particular since in only the last three years his students have also won the MBA Round Robin (twice), the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln Douglas in 2005 (including the top seed and top speaker) followed by a Tournament of Champions winner in Policy debate in 2006 (the team did not drop a ballot at the tournament), The Glenbrooks, the Grapevine Fall Classic (three years running) placed third at Nationals (in both Lincoln Douglas and Policy), and the Greenhill Round Robin - twice . Aaron's accomplishments in debate are literally unparalleled. He has had champion debaters in both Lincoln-Douglas and Policy Debate one of the few debate coaches in history to cross this great divide. His most notable accomplishment in his debate career was last year at the National Tournament when Mr. Timmons was inducted into the National Coaches Hall of Fame.
Mr. Timmons real talent isn't even in coaching, it is teaching. Timmons volunteers his time to teach debate to inner-city youths in addition to his full time teaching load at Greenhill School in Addison, TX. Mr. Timmons is a truly inspirational speaker and lecturer. In his over twenty years of education he has created a dynasty of debate competition and a pursuit of excellence in each student he comes in contact with. He has taught hundreds, even thousands, of students at debate camps across the country for nearly two decades. Two years ago, Mr. Timmons signed on to lead Mean Green Workshops at the University of North Texas. "A workshop not a camp," he stresses, "because here we work." He prides himself on creating an institute where students are both safe and educated. He is one of the few debate coaches of his tenure that remains active in the community. He serves, as President of the Texas Forensic Association, is a Board member of the National Debate Coaches Association and the Lincoln Douglas Education Project. He can be routinely found judging rounds and giving valuable critiques to other students at debate tournaments. It is worth mentioning that at a time when policy arguments are making in-roads into LD, few are more capable of demystifying those arguments and explaining how to run and/or beat them than Mr. Timmons. In world in which debate camps are more prevalent than ever before Mr. Timmons ensures a valuable student experience that literally no other camp can offer. This year Mr. Timmons has committed to being a full time lab leader and will be accessible for all students.
Jonathan Alston
Jonathan is a high school English teacher and the Lincoln-Douglas debate coach for Newark Science High School in New Jersey. He graduated from Yale University. He has coached five N.J. State Champions and has had debaters make it to late elimination rounds at Stanford, Emory, Greenhill, Wake Forest, Harvard, and the Tournament of Champions, among others, in his ten years as a coach. Jonathan is a gifted lecturer and teacher, consistently getting the highest evaluations from his lab students year after year. In addition, Jonathan has been highly requested by coaches to work with their students to get them to maximize their potential. His attention to detail, diversity of teaching methods and the ability to instill both confidence and improved skills into transitioning younger students is second to none.
Stephen Babb
Stephen received his B.B.A. at Baylor University in Human Resource Management with Minors in Philosophy & Political Science. Babb now teaches debate, journalism, and social science at the Archer Schools for Girls in Los Angeles. As current director of speech and debate and in past stints with Brentwood, Highland Park (Dallas), and Westlake, his students have cleared to elimination rounds at St. Mark's, Greenhill, the Glenbrooks, Apple Valley, Stanford, Berkeley, Blake, Grapevine, Colleyville Heritage, and NFL Nationals. As a competitor at the Texas Military Institute in San Antonio from 1997 to 2001, he qualified to and broke in LD at Nationals three times, first placing in the top thirty-two, then returning to place ninth and fourth. He also appeared in elimination rounds at the TFA State Tournament three years in a row and, as a senior, was crowned the Texas State Champion. Stephen competed in elimination rounds of Emory and Greenhill in both his sophomore and senior years. His successes earned him invitations to the University of Colorado Flatirons Round Robin (which he won), the Greenhill Round Robin, and the MBA Round Robin. Babb also has extensive experience with summer debate programs. He's taught at Stanford National Forensics Institute, the Bates Summer Debate Workshop, the University of Texas National Institute for Forensics, the Dallas Debate Institute, and the National Debate Forum in Boston, where he also directed the Repeaters Program. This summer will be his second working with the University of North Texas Mean Green Debate Workshop and his seventh at the Victory Briefs Institute in L.A.
Perry Beard
(Technical Difficulties--Updated Bio Coming Soon)
Arti Bhatia
Arti Bhatia debated for four years at Colleyville Heritage High School on both the local and national circuits. Arti started her competitive national career her junior year and since has participated in the elimination rounds of nearly every tournament she attended (including Grapevine, Greenhill, Emory, St. Marks, Churchill, and the Glenbrooks) as well as qualified to the TOC. In her junior year, she advanced to the octafinal round of the TFA State tournament. Her junior and senior year, she also participated in the Greenhill Round Robin and Hockaday Round Robin, where she was named the top speaker of the tournament. In addition to competitive success, she was recognized for her commitment, leadership, and service in the debate community as the recipient of the Naeglin Award. Arti attended the Mean Green Workshops for three summers as a student and is returning for her first year as an instructor.
Neil Conrad
Neil Conrad debated as a student at Texas Military Academy in San Antonio. In limited appearances on the national circuit, he compiled an impressive record. He competed in late elimination rounds at the St. Mark's, Glenbrooks, Greenhill, and UT tournaments. He won the 2003 Greenhill Round Robin and was top speaker at the TFA state tournament. He was also 3rd speaker at the 2004 TOC and took 3rd place at the University of Iowa Round Robin as a junior.
He is also the assistant LD coach at the Greenhill School in Addison, TX, where he has helped coach two TOC out round participants, one of which was the 2005 TOC Champion and top speaker, and champions of the TFA state tournament, MBA Round Robin (twice), Greenhill Round Robin (twice), Hockaday Round Robin, the Glenbrooks, and Isidore Newman.
Neil has been a debate camp instructor for three summers and coaches the top lab at the Victory Briefs Institute. Last year, Neil taught the third week of the Mean Green Workshops and totally transformed the skill and knowledge base of the students that worked with him. His evaluations were some of the most glowing of the entire summer. Neil has a sense of not just what it takes to win debates, but how to do so with a sense of sound argumentation based on topic specific literature. Neil believes in teaching and instilling in students the importance of clash in debate. He is without question one of the best young coaches, judges and teachers in the United States. He will again be teaching the top lab this summer.
Neil is a rising junior at Tulane University triple-majoring in political science, economics, and international development.
Patrick Diehl
Patrick debated for four years in both policy and LD at Lynbrook High School. He was top speaker and champion at the 2007 TOC. During his two-year LD career, he qualified to the TOC twice, won St. Mark's and the Mineapple, and was in semifinals of Emory and the Glenbrooks. He was also top speaker at St. Mark's, Emory, and Berkeley, and placed in the top 10 speakers at every major national tournament he attended. He was invited to the Greenhill, Stanford, and MBA Round Robins and finished 3rd at MBA.
Ali Huberlie
Ali Huberlie is in her first year at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is studying Political Science and Urban Education. During her three-year national circuit debate career, Ali collected fourteen bids to the Tournament of Champions, fully qualifying to the tournament three times. In her senior year, she advanced to quarter-finals of the TOC; she was also the 5th speaker. Additionally, by the end of her senior year, Ali had championed the Harvard National Invitational, and the Vassar, Skyway, and Victory Briefs Sophomore Round Robins. Finally, she placed second at both the Greenhill and MBA Round Robins, and advanced to out-rounds at every single national circuit tournament she attended her junior and senior years. While Ali is proud of her circuit career, she is most proud of the work she has done to improve access to debate in the Mid-Atlantic area. As Chair of After-School Programming and Senior Coordinator for Perspectives Debate, Inc., the nation's leading non-profit Lincoln-Douglas debate organization, she coordinates after-school debate programs at ten Philadelphia public schools, and helps fund-raise to send low income students to tournaments and debate camps. She has previously taught at the National Debate Forum, the National Symposium for Debate, and the Philadelphia Debate Institute.
Gary Johnson
Gary debated for four years at Katy High School in Katy, TX. As the assistant coach at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, he has coached the champions of TFA State, Greenhill, Wake Forest, University of Texas, Blake, a close-out of the Victory Briefs Tournament, and a close-out of Churchill, in addition to finalists at St. Marks, Apple Valley, Big Bronx, Grapevine, UT, and the Victory Briefs and Bronx Round Robins. In three years as the assistant coach, he has coached over 30 TFA state qualifications and 9 TOC qualifications with his students amassing 35 bids in 3 years. In this role, Gary brings extensive experience working with students who range from freshmen competing regionally to seniors reaching late elimination rounds at major national circuit tournaments. As a competitor, Gary cleared to elimination rounds at over 30 tournaments on the local and national circuit including St. Marks, Grapevine, Isidore Newman, Churchill, UIL State, and TFA State. He brings workshop teaching experience from UNT Mean Green Workshops, the Pinnacle Winter Seminar, and other smaller workshops held in Houston. A junior at Rice University, Gary occasionally dabbles in parliamentary debate at the collegiate level. This will be his 4th summer at UNT.
Beena Koshy
While some refer to her as the "Paula Abdul of debate," Beena Koshy is truly one of the best teachers and most successful young coaches in the nation. While participating in high school at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota, she was a state champion in speech and a state finalist in debate. She traveled the circuit advancing to out rounds at such tournaments as St. Marks, Bronx, Glenbrooks, Valley and Emory, NFL, CFL and the TOC where she was tenth speaker. After attending college at the University of Minnesota where she became a chef whose culinary skills rival that of any of working in a 4 star restaurant, she returned to her roots of Forensics post college and moved to Sacred Heart High School in Kingston, Massachusetts and has since served as Director Of Debate and coach of speech. In 2006 her student was state champion in Massachusetts and runner up at the National Forensic League Texas Bluebonnet Nationals! So far this year, another student, has been invited to numerous Round Robins and recently went though an incredibly tough field to win the 2006 Glenbrooks invitational out of over 200 debaters from around the country.
Her attention to detail in giving each student in her lab the best possible experience results in a pedagogy that any coach should want their students to be a part of. Beena is a stickler for teaching fundamentals to students. While many student these days want to run "cool stuff", Beena is steadfast in her belief that sound argumentation which is well researched, well warranted and well structured, is a precondition for success. While others diminish the importance of public speaking and the relationship between good speaking and success, Beena instills in all students, the belief that good speaking is a skill that will win not only ballots, but one that serves you in life as well.
Her novice lab at the Mean Green Workshops the past two years have taken students with little or no experience and turned them into confident debaters and speakers in the two weeks she has worked with them. We are thrilled she will be returning this year to Denton.
Todd Liipfert
Todd is the co-president of the debate team at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, one of the most commanding forensics programs in the country. Todd is an alumnus of Mean Green Workshops and has competed in elimination rounds at some of the most competitive tournaments in the country, including the Glenbrooks, New York City Invitational (Bronx Science), the Victory Briefs Tournament, the Harvard National Invitational, and the Wake Forest National Early Bird. He debated the final round of the Minneapple at Apple Valley High School, one of the nation's largest and most competitive tournaments. In addition to an impressive record of accomplishments on the national circuit, Todd is a top debater on the local and state level. A three-time qualifier for the TFA State Tournament, Todd has twice competed in the final round of the Cinco Ranch Round-up (he took the championship as a junior). He has also participated in outrounds at many of the most competitive tournaments in Texas: Greenhill, St. Mark's, Grapevine, Houston-Memorial, Churchill, and the UT Longhorn Classic. This year, Todd placed in the Greenhill Round Robin. He also participated in the Archer Round Robin and closed out the PDAA Tournament at the Pinnacle Winter Seminar.
Michael Mangus
Michael Mangus debated on the national Lincoln-Douglas circuit for four years at Saint James School (Montgomery, AL). He qualified to the Tournament of Champions three times, reached the quarter-finals twice, and was the tournament's top seed in 2006. In his senior season Michael won the Glenbrooks and Apple Valley, reached finals at Greenhill, and closed out the AFEA Alabama State Championship. For the 2007-08 season, he was an assistant LD and Public Forum coach at The Collegiate School (New York, NY). His students combined for 6 bids to the TOC: one in PF, five in LD. As a student at the University of Pittsburgh, Michael competes on the NDT/CEDA college policy circuit and qualified to the 2007 National Debate Tournament. He is pursuing a degree in Information Science with a minor in Linguistics.
David McGough
David McGough, as a senior at Greenhill School in Dallas, amassed one of the best competitive records of the 2006-2007 season winning the Grapevine Fall Classic, Greenhill Round Robin and Montgomery Bell Round Robin. He was also a late elimination round participant of St. Marks and Apple Valley in addition to being in the semifinals of the TFA State tournament as a junior. David was a student participant of the Mean Green Workshop in 2006. We are glad that he has decided to return to share some of his thoughts as a recent competitor to those attending in the summer of 2007.
Liz Mullins
Liz debated for three years at Sacred Heart High School in Massachusetts. She qualified for the Catholic National Tournament, Tournament of Champions and Grand National Tournament. In 2005 she was both the Massachusetts State Champion and National Runner-Up. Liz's talents go beyond Lincoln Douglas Debate. She participated in a variety of activities including congress, impromptu, duo and humorous interpretation. She was her class president for all four years of high school, the only one in the history of her school to complete such an accomplishment. Liz continued her excellence in college where she has placed in the top twenty in every competition she has attended winning championship speaker awards and receiving competitive success in both team and single debate. Liz splits her time between debating nearly every weekend in college, attending full time college courses and volunteering her time to teach high school students how to debate in her college town. Liz also puts in her time at home, she volunteers coaches, and judges for her alma mater every weekend she can. She has worked at both Mean Green Workshops and Sacred Heart National as a first year instructor. Liz is talented teacher whose reviews at last years workshops were among the best She is passionate about debate and always willing to help those who would like to learn how to balance social life and debate life.
Scott Robinson, Ph.D.
Dr. Robinson has over a decade of LD coaching experience both in Texas and on the national circuit. As a competitor for Duncanville High School he cleared to elimination rounds at the TFA state tournament and the NFL national tournament, as well as qualifying for the 5A division of the UIL state tournament. In the time that Dr. Robinson worked toward his undergraduate degree (eventually a B.A. in Government and Politics - summa cum laude) at the University of Texas, Dallas, he was also an assistant coach in LD debate at Newman Smith High School, where his students had remarkable success locally and nationally. Their accomplishments include two individual debaters both in semi-finals of TFA state in one year, teams in late elimination rounds at Emory, St. Marks, and the NFL National tournament, as well as champion of the first Greenhill Round Robin. Dr. Robinson's students were also invited to multiple other national round robins including Bronx Science, MBA, and the Gulf Coast round robins.
Dr. Robinson taught at the Kentucky National Debate Institute LD workshop from 1997-2002 and 2004. In various years he served as both the LD fellow's program coordinator and as the coordinator for the Kentucky novice program. In these years his lab students have gone on to win Greenhill, St. Marks, Glenbrooks, Emory, Harvard, the TOC and the NFL National tournament. In this time he has also written a series of textbooks on LD debate practice and argumentation for Paradigm Research, Inc. He was a contributor to the Paradigm LD Topic Analysis from 1997-2002. He also wrote the LD Positions series of philosophy texts (6 volumes, each in two editions), the LD Roadguide textbook (also in two editions), and Coaching for Success in LD Debate. Most recently he co-authored a pair of articles for The Rostrum on teaching LD research skills. All told he has over a million words in print on the subject of LD debate.
In 1997, Scott Robinson moved to Texas A&M University to complete a PhD in Political Science (completed in 2001). He has subsequently become an award winning teacher at Texas A&M University, Rice University and now the University of Texas, Dallas. He has taught courses on American policy processes, human and organizational decision-making, presidential politics, public management and research methodology. His original research on education policy and presidential politics has appeared in State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Review of Policy Research, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. He has a forthcoming book chapter in the Handbook of Decision Making. His current research at the University of Texas, Dallas, focuses on the application of punctuated equilibrium models to policy and social change processes, and the role of social networks in the development of education policy by school districts and campuses.
Dr. Robinson brings unparalleled expertise in empirical social research to the Mean Green Debate Institute. In addition to his expertise on social and political theory, Dr. Robinson has the advantage of being an active researcher able to share with students the most cutting edge theories of social and political change. If asked nicely he can also show you a not-so-nice way to escape a choke hold, as he is also an assistant instructor of martial arts, with a first degree black belt, in Nick Cerio's Kenpo Karate.
Matt Aks
Matt debated at Scarsdale High School for three years, qualified to the Tournament of Champions twice, and was a semifinalist there his senior year. He twice advanced to the final round of the Newark Debates, winning it as a senior, and was also a finalist at the Glenbrooks. Matt was top speaker at Greenhill, the Glenbrooks, the Bronx Round Robin, and the Newark Debates, and he competed at the Greenhill and MBA Round Robins. As a senior, Matt was a member of the Scarsdale team that broke the ten-year-old record for most students qualified to the TOC in a single year. Matt currently attends Brown University, and he plans to concentrate in Philosophy.
Courtney Nunley
Courtney Nunley, a co-captain at Northland Christian School, debated for three years on the local and national circuits. Beginning her national circuit career at the end of her junior year, Courtney cleared at nearly every national tournament she participated in including Harvard, Grapevine, St. Marks, Blake, and VBT. She also received speaker awards at the TFA State Tournament, Grapevine, St. Marks and VBT. In Courtney's junior year she received invitations to the Dallas Debate and Hockaday Round Robins and competed in the Blake, Archer, and Hockaday Round Robins her senior year. Winning the competitive East Texas District Tournament her senior year, she will compete in the Las Vegas Nationals after she teaches at UNT. She enjoys helping the younger debaters on her team and is excited to return to UNT after being a student at the camp in 2006.
Rachel Lanier
Rachel Lanier is a co-captain of the Northland Christian School debate team and has competed in LD debate for three years. During her senior year she competed in both national and local circuit tournaments and advanced at Glenbrooks, as well as being invited to different round robins like the Hockaday Women's Round Robin her junior and senior year, and the Dallas Debate Round Robin. She has been successful in regards to speaker awards, was an octafinals at state her junior year (while at the same time advancing in extemporaneous speaking), and qualified for Nationals her senior year as second in district. Rachel attended Mean Green Workshops before her junior year, and we are very excited to have her join us this year!
Shadman Zaman
Shadman is a senior at Sacred Heart High School in Massachusetts, where he has debated for four years. In that time, he has won the MBA Round Robin, the Glenbrooks, Yale, Manchester, Lexington, Columbia, the Massachusetts State Championship, and the New England NFL District Tournament; cleared to octofinals at the TOC; placed 5th at NCFL Nationals; placed in the top 25 at NFL Nationals; reached elimination rounds at Greenhill (twice), Apple Valley (twice - quarterfinalist, 2006; top speaker, 2007), Blue Key, and Harvard; and twice participated in the Greenhill, Lexington (2nd place, 2007), and MBA (5th place, 2007) Round Robins. In the last two years, he has earned 8 TOC bids.
Abdul Beretay
Abdul Beretay has been involved in LD for fourteen years. He competed for four years at Bergenfield High School (class of 97), in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He continued to coach LD the following ten years at Bergenfield, East Side High School and University High School in Newark, N.J. As a competitor on both the national and regional circuit Abdul has earned numerous awards reaching the later out rounds of tournaments like Emory, Lexington, Glenbrooks-where he was the top speaker, the T.O.C., and N.J. States. He was N.J. District Qualifier to Nationals with undefeated record, and the only debater to win prelims by unanimous decision with 12-0 record at Nationals in 1997.
At Bergenfield, Abdul coached several Nationals and T.O.C. qualifiers, and a Stanford Round Robin champion, in addition to debaters reaching the out rounds of many regional and national circuit tournaments such as the Apple Valley, Stanford, Bronx Science, Emory, Lexington and Hendrick Hudson. As a music artist in another life, Abdul has deep appreciation for debate as a creative means of education and self expression and believes in making debate a compelling, informative performance. In recognition of his contributions to debate, he was the recipient of the 16th Lexington coaching award in 2004 and has been invited to teach at three different debate institutes returning for a second year at each: University of Michigan, Capitol Classic at Catholic University (D.C.), and Sacred Heart National at Suffolk University in Boston. He currently resides in New York City and coaches LD at University High School in Newark, N.J.
Vivian Ho
Vivian has debated for Marcus High School, in Flower Mound, Texas, for four years. Over this period, she qualified for the TFA State tournament in her sophomore, junior, and senior year, and reached elimination rounds at TFA State during her junior and senior year. She has been invited three times to the Hockaday All-Star Women's Round Robin, and was a semifinalist, 2nd speaker, and winner of her pod. On the local Dallas circuit, she won the Hockaday Invitational and the Plano Senior Classic.
As a senior, Vivian cleared to the elimination rounds of nearly every TOC tournament she attended: Churchill, Greenhill, Colleyville Heritage, and the University of Texas Longhorn Classic, with late-outround appearances in the last two. She attended the TOC her senior year and had a winning record.
Outside of her tournament participation, Vivian was President and Historian for the Marcus Debate Team, and routinely volunteers on the local circuit as a judge. |
