Lincoln Douglas Debate
2011 Faculty
Look for 2012 Faculty Coming Soon!
Aaron Timmons, LD Debate Director
Aaron W. Timmons is the Director of Debate at Greenhill School. A former President of the Texas Forensic Association, Mr. Timmons has published several educational publications and is a frequent presenter of workshops on debate pedagogy both in Texas, and across the United States. In 2000, Mr. Timmons was listed as one of the top coaches of the 20th century. Mr. Timmons has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the National Forensic League, the Texas Forensic Association and the Tournament of Champions. Mr. Timmons is one of only three coaches in the history of the National Forensic League to win National Championships in policy debate and Lincoln - Douglas Debate, and the only coach to have multiple champions in both divisions. He has also coached the top speaker in policy and Lincoln - Douglas debate, as well as champions in both formats, at the Tournament of Champions. Mr. Timmons has worked at debate workshops for thirty years as an instructor, and has served as the Director of the Mean Green Lincoln - Douglas workshops since 2005.
Lab Instructors
(Alphabetically)
Jalon Alexander
Jalon Alexander debated at The Bodine High school for International Affairs for his 11th and 12th grade years on both the national and local circuits advancing to elimination rounds at the Big Bronx invitational (twice), Greenhill, Harvard, Yale, Emory, Meadows, and Columbia. He also received speaker awards at Meadows, Greenhill, Bronx, and finished with 1st and 2nd Speaker awards at Yale and Newark respectively. He has earned invitations for Round Robins such as Harvard, Newark, Greenhill, Bronx, Perspectives and the Six Rounds of Spring. Jalon has also qualified for the Tournament of Champions, as well as locally winning over $80,000 dollars in scholarship money for debate. Despite that, Jalon's greatest memory is his first trip to the Tournament of Champions with his Grandfather/coach Maurice Floyd, and coach Aaron Timmons .
Jonathan Alston
Jonathan is a high school English teacher and the Lincoln-Douglas debate coach for Newark Science Park High School in New Jersey. He graduated from Yale University. He has coached seven N.J. State Champions and has had debaters make it to late elimination rounds at Stanford, Emory, Greenhill, Wake Forest, Harvard, St. Marks and the Tournament of Champions, among others, in his eighteen 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. Jonathan personifies excellence and professionalism in his approach to educating any student he has the opportunity to work with.
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 twice. She twice advanced to the octafinal round of the TFA State tournament. Her junior and senior year, she participated in the Greenhill Round Robin. She was also invited to the Hockaday Round Robin for three years where she finished third her senior year and was top speaker of the TOC division twice. 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 fourth year as an instructor.
Anjan Choudhury
Anjan received his BA from George Washington University before receiving his JD from Harvard Law School. A former TOC semifinalist in LD debate for Taylor High School in Texas, Anjan Choudhury has coached LD debate for the past five years while working as an attorney. During his tenure as Director of Forensics at Walt Whitman High School, his LD students set several national TOC records: most students qualified in LD debate by one team, most bids earned by an LD team in a single season, and most students to make elimination rounds in LD debate. Anjan has coached the Champion or Runner-Up LD debaters of the following TOC-qualifying tournaments and national round robins: Alta, the Barkley Forum (Emory), the Bronx Round Robin, Bronx Science (NYC Invitational), Columbia, the Glenbrooks, the Greenhill Classic, the Greenhill Round Robin, Harvard Invitational, the Harvard Round Robin, Hendrick Hudson (Bump), Lexington, Manchester, the MBA Round Robin, Monticello, Vassar Round Robin, the Victory Briefs Tournament, Wake Forest, and Yale. He has also coached 3 NCFL National Champions and 2 NCFL Runner Ups in the past 5 years, students in the late elims of NFL nationals, and six TOC elimination or runoff round participants in the past 3 years. Anjan has taught and served as a Curriculum Director of Sessions 1, 2, and the Skills and Drills Extension at the Victory Briefs Institute, taught at Pinnacle Debate, and lectured at the Harvard Public Forum Institute and UNT Mean Green Workshops.
Claire Daviss
Claire debated for four years at Winston Churchill High School on local, state, and national circuits. Throughout the span of her career in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, she achieved notable success, including qualifying twice to NFL Nationals (following her sophomore and senior years), attending the Tournament of Champions as a junior and senior, and on the Texas circuit, qualifying three times to the TFA state tournament. In her senior year, she participated in out rounds at nearly every Tournament of Champions qualifying tournament she attended and earned high speaker awards at many more, including Greenhill, St. Marks, Grapevine, the University of Texas, and Colleyville-Heritage, where she was the champion. At the recent Texas Forensic Association State Meet, she won State Championships in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking. She attended UNT as a workshop student and is excited to return for her second year as an instructor.
Pat Donovan
Pat Donovan competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate for Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois. He qualified twice to the National Tournament of Champions, where he was Top Speaker and a quarterfinalist his senior year, and holds two National Debate Coaches Association championship titles. In addition to consistent success on the national circuit, Pat excelled locally, winning the 2009 Illinois state championship. Currently, Pat is an engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin and competes in Policy debate. Pat is also a debate coach at Northland Christian School. His students have qualified to the Tournament of Champions and won numerous awards at major national tournaments, including championships at the Glenbrooks and Victory Briefs Tournament.
Sam Hamad
Sam debated for two years at Winston Churchill High School after transferring from Katy Taylor, where he debated for a year. As a Junior, he placed third at the Texas Forensics state tournament, was the 5A UIL state champion, and competed in Domestic Extemporaneous speaking at NFL Nationals. Attending the workshop for a second time, he kicked off his senior year of debate by winning the annual tournament held by the camp. Sam topped his debate career off by qualifying to the Tournament of Champions when he earned bids at St. Marks and the University of Texas. He will participate in Lincoln Douglas debate at the national tournament this summer. Next year, he will be a freshman at Texas A&M University studying business.
Beena Koshy
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 she returned to her roots of Forensics post college and moved to Sacred Heart High School in Kingston, Massachusetts. In 2006 her student was state champion in Massachusetts and runner up at the National Forensic League Texas Bluebonnet Nationals!
Her attention to detail in giving each student in her lab the best possible experience results in 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 five years have taken students with little or no experience and turned them into confident debaters and speakers in the two or three weeks she -has worked with them. We are thrilled she will be returning this year to Denton.
Rachel Lanier
Rachel Lanier competed in Lincoln Douglas debate and Extemporaneous speaking for 3 years at Northland Christian School. She was given many speaker awards and advanced in numerous tournaments such as Glenbrooks, TFA state, and went on to get 7th place at NFL Nationals. Throughout college, she has taught at various debate workshops and judged at different tournaments. She is about to begin her senior year at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, with a double major in Psychology and Religion.
Todd Liipfert
Todd is currently a junior at Georgetown University in D.C. majoring in government and an assistant coach of Strake Jesuit in Houston. This year he has qualified five debaters to the TOC and at least ten to TFA state, including the Champions of the Churchill and University of Texas Tournaments as well as the Vassar Round Robin. Previously, as an assistant coach at Walt Whitman, he has coached finalists at the Greenhill Round Robin, the Greenhill Classic, and the Victory Briefs Tournament and the champions of the Glenbrooks, MBA Round Robin, the Barkley Forum, and the Harvard Invitational and Round Robin. His teaching experience also includes three previous summers at Mean Green Workshops as well as the Victory Briefs Institute. Graduating from high school in 2008, Todd debated for Strake Jesuit and was the 2008 National Champion. Additionally, he placed 5th at the Glenbrooks, 2nd at the Apple Valley Minneapple and was an octofinalist at TOC.
Courtney Nunley
Courtney Nunley, a junior at Texas A&M University, debated for three years on the local and national circuits at Northland Christian School. 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. Courtney ended her debate career by competing at the TOC and placing 10th at the NFL National Tournament. She brings experience from Pinnacle Debate Institute and is excited to return to teach for her third year at Mean Green Workshops!
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 Rice University, the University of Texas - Dallas, and Texas A&M University. The regularly teaches courses on public leadership and management. His original research on education policy. presidential politics, and disaster/emergency management has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Public Manager, Public Performance and Management Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Review of Policy Research, and Presidential Studies Quarterly (as well in chapters in several edited volumes). His current research at the Bush School for Government and Public Service focuses on the mobilization of nonprofit organization and charities to assist in disaster preparedness and response.
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. Dr. Robinson's professional site may be viewed here: http://bush.tamu.edu/facultyspotlight/srobinson1109/.
Coral Rojas
Coral is a rising junior in college and competed in Lincoln Douglas debate for four years at Fort Lauderdale High School. She debated in both national and local circuits, qualifying to NFL Nationals her junior year, and to TOC her senior year. She has been invited to several round robins and cleared at the Florida state tournament all three years she qualified, finishing third her senior year. She continues to judge for, and coach, her former high school and attended the Mean Green Workshops the summer of her senior year. Coral is a frequent judge at national circuit event and, as importantly, does a fantastic job of communicating to competitors the need to communicate with a wide range of judges while offering suggestions to do just that. We are pleased to have her join us in Denton for her second summer as an instructor.
Ed Williams
Mr. Williams has been coaching debate for 20 years. He began his career at Myers Park High School in North Carolina, and along the way he has coached at Charlotte Latin, Woodward Academy, Marist, and most recently Calhoun High School. He is a Barkley Forum Key Coach and 2 time North Carolina Coach of the year and Georgia Coach of the Year. During his career he has coached a top speaker at the NFL National tournament as well a runner-up. During his career he started two programs and made both programs national competitive. During his career his teams have debated in late elimination rounds at every major national tournament including the Tournament of Champions. Over the years he has taught at summer debate workshops throughout the country. He has been at the Mean Green Workshop for 3 years.
Jared Woods
Jared Woods is a 2011 graduate from the Northland Christian School in the Houston area, where he has debated Lincoln-Douglas for four years. Jared has been highly successful on both the national and Texas circuits. He qualified to the TFA State tournament for three consecutive years, reaching elimination rounds each time with a quarterfinals finish as a senior. In addition, Jared qualified to the national Tournament of Champions for two consecutive years, earning seven career bids at tournaments such as Greenhill, St. Marks, Apple Valley, Victory Briefs, Berkeley, and the Glenbrooks. He has competed in elimination rounds at nearly every tournament he has attended as a senior, including Bronx Science, Grapevine, and Harvard. Moreover, Jared has enjoyed the privilege of competing in several prestigious round robins, including the Greenhill Round Robin in both his junior and senior years, the Bronx Round Robin, the Iowa Round Robin, the College Preparatory School Round Robin, and the inaugural Kandi King Round Robin. He brings to the UTNIF staff extensive competitive experience with the current trend of crossing over "policy debate" style arguments to LD. He also has much experience working with younger students on the Northland team on foundational skills. In addition to serving as a lab leader at UNT, Jared also will work at the University of Texas National Institute in Forensics (UTNIF). He will be a freshman at
the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor this coming fall as a political science major. |
