LD Faculty and Staff
2024 Staff List
Joshua Adegoke
Joshua is a rising Sophomore at Rice University who debated for Challenge Early College High School which has an extremely small and underfunded debate program but managed to make a name for himself on the circuit. He has been a part of the activity for a while and loves to give back to the community. He has made it to a few Bid rounds including the 2023 Emory & Stanford tournament being an octofinalist. He has also qualified for the TFA (Texas Forensic Association) State tournament twice and finished his 2023 season as an Octofinalist. He specializes in the K, primarily focusing on Non-T and T Afropess, Afro Optimism, Afro-futurism, Security, and the Cap K. Excluding debate, loves to research and learn new things/do new activities.
Alfonso Arreola
Alfonso debated at Heights HS for 3 years in Policy and LD debate. He currently is an assistant coach at Heights HS and has coached multiple students to late elimination rounds at national circuit tournaments. His debate interests include Policy/LARP debate, theory, settler colonialism, and postmodern literature. This year he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in International Relations and Global Studies. Next year he will be attending Columbia Law School. Outside of debate he enjoys playing tennis and studying Japanese.
Fiona Bray
Fiona debated for Midtown High School in LD for three years. She won four state tournaments, won district student of the year and broke at various national circuit tournaments. She usually went for policy arguments or Ks. She's most familiar with set col, Virilio, and fem killjoy. She's attending Princeton in the fall and so excited to work this summer!
Grant Brown
Grant Brown debated in Lincoln Douglas for Millard North High School in Omaha, Nebraska. He was an assistant coach at Lake Highland as well as the head coach at the Brearley School and has coached numerous students to elimination rounds of national tournaments and the Tournament of Champions. He is currently a PhD student in Philosophy at Villanova University.
Isaac Chao
Isaac is a teacher and debate coach in Houston, Texas and has been in education since 2015. As a coach, Isaac works with policy, LD, and WS debaters. He has spent the past 10 years coaching students who compete through the Houston Urban Debate League and other local and national circuits, while prioritizing financial accessibility: his program has never charged fees so all students compete for free. Isaac's debate interests include creative disad/counterplan combinations and working through higher-order debate concepts (including critical literature) with students. This will be his 9th summer at TDC and his 5th round as administrator!
Amanda Ciocca
Amanda holds a dual B.A from Florida State University in Women Studies and Media Communications and she is currently is pursuing a Master's Degree in Women Studies. She graduated from West Broward High School in 2019, competing in Lincoln- Douglas. She specializes in critical literature with a focus on feminism, queer theory, Latine/x lit, hauntology, and ecocritical literature. She is a published creative writer and still is heavily involved in debate, specifically on the Texas circuit. She's had students qualify to the TOC, make it to late elims of tournaments like Strake Jesuit and Harvard, and consistently earn speaker awards. Her non-debate related hobbies include: taking care of her tortoise, watching Studio Ghibli movies, painting, and turning her room into a personal plant nursery.
Nathaniel Council
Nathaniel Council is the current President of the Texas Forensic Association starting his second two year term. He is also the coach of speech and debate at Pampa High School. He has coached for 17 years coaching state champions in Congress and LD, as well as state finalists in Poetry and Extemp. Council has served as a topic writer for NFHS Policy debate topic and has twice been nominated as secondary teacher of the year for the Texas Speech Communication Association and has been honored by the UIL with its Sponsor Excellence Award. He has attended the TDC teachers institute on three occasions.
Jayanne Forrest
Jayanne Forrest is a rising second year medical student in New York. Jayanne grew up in south Florida, and earned her undergraduate degree with honors at Columbia University, where she majored in African American and African diaspora studies in addition to completing the pre-medical track. During her time as a debate coach, Jayanne coached for Lake Highland preparatory school, Stuyvesant high school, and worked with debate companies including Early Scholars. In 2023 Jayanne was awarded LD state championship coach at the Florida state debate tournament. Throughout her time coaching, her students amassed 25 career TOC bids, and many of her students championed state and national debate tournaments. In addition to her 5 years of coaching experience in LD and PF, Jayanne competed for Fort Lauderdale High School for 4 years in LD and Policy debate. Jayanne has taught several summers at TDC and NSD, and is also a TDC alumna. In her free time, Jayanne enjoys listening to music, playing games on her Nintendo Switch, and spending time with her friends.
Tavia Gabrysch
Tavia Gabrysch was a policy debater in high school for 4 years. Their debate interests include performance and kritikal identity affirmatives. Tavia has a bachelor's degree in English from UT Austin, with dual minors in Pre-Health Professions and Philosophy. This fall, she will be 1L law student at Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where she plans to focus on civil and human rights law. Outside of debate, Tavia enjoys Sanderson and Austen novels, videogames, and theatre. This is their third year as an administrator at TDC, and she's excited to be back!
Evan Gilbert
Evan was a policy debater in high school at JBS Law Magnet and in college at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is now the Program Director for the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance where he helps students learn Policy, World Schools, and Lincoln Douglas debate. This will be Evans 5th time being a part of the Texas Debate Collective and he is excited to help more students get the most out of their debate experience!
Anshul Gulati
Anshul competed at McNeil High School in LD for four years, graduating in 2023. They were a flexible debater, reading various policy, kritikal, and theory oriented positions, and qualified to the TOC twice with four career bids. They're currently attending UT Austin for Computer Science and Asian American Studies.
Joel Henson
Joel Henson was an LD debater for four years at Lincoln North Star in Lincoln, Nebraska. They will be joining the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's NFA-LD team. He has been to TDC 3 times, and is excited to return!
Benjamin Hoover
Ben debated for Lincoln East High School for 4 years. He won various tournaments, including their state tournament, and obtained 4 career bids competing at the TOC both his junior and senior year as well as winning district student of the year. He’s a flex debater who mostly reads the Kritik, especially performance, and theory while occasionally reading larp or tricks positions. He’s most familiar with Non-T and T borderlands, queer pess, and set col. Outside of debate, he loves finding new music, reading, and going to the lake. He’s the co-founder of the Latine and Hispanic Debate Foundation and is planning to study Biochemistry at UNL next year!
Asia Hossein
Asia was a Policy and LD debater at Westside HS for four years. She is currently a junior at the University of Houston pursuing dual majors in Psychology and Education. Her debate interests include theory, settler colonialism, cap K, and Afro-futurism. Outside of debate, she works with labor rights, queer rights in South Asia, improving education in underfunded schools, and specializes in cultural psychology, particularly in South Asia. She likes to spend her leisure time reading Bengali literature and trying to cook new ethnic cuisines. This is her first year at TDC, and she is enthralled to contribute in any way!
Tuyen Le
Tuyen did LD for three years in high school and was a policy debater for the University of Houston from ‘21-‘23 where she won JV ADA and JV/Novice Nats her freshman year. She is an assistant debate coach at Seven Lakes HS and has helped coach students to deep elimination rounds at multiple major tournaments, including quarters of the TOC. Her areas of focus are policy style arguments with an emphasize on case heavy strategies. Outside of debate, she is a published researcher studying postcolonial theory and international relations.
Lindsey McNamara
Lindsey debated for William T. Dwyer high school for 4 years in LD as a lone wolf, graduating in 2017. She also competed for University of Florida’s policy debate team where she also received her bachelors degree in Psychology. Throughout her high school career, Lindsey made it to elim rounds at Yale and Harvard as well as it to bid rounds at Crestian, Blue Key, Emory, and Sunvitational- receiving 1 bid her Senior year. She also qualified for both NSDA and NCFL nationals all 4 years, making it to elim rounds her junior and senior year. Lindsey debated with both traditional and progressive styles focusing on philosophy and K debate. This year is her first year at TDC and she’s excited to teach at TDC this summer!
Matthew Matuszeski
Matt debated 2 years at Millard North High School in Omaha Nebraska and after graduating in 2017 debated 1 year of NFA LD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Matt has since coached LD at Millard North and Lincoln high school. While there he has had students qualify to the TOC and NSDA Nationals. Matt has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He currently works as a debate instructor at the Bergen County Debate Club in New Jersey.
Kelley Moore
Kelley holds two BAs in Philosophy and in English with a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric and a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of North Texas. She is currently the Debate teacher for New Tech High School at B.F. Darrell in Dallas ISD where she additionally teaches AP Lang. Kelley has attended TDC for 2 years in the teacher’s institute and is very excited about teaching at TDC this year.
Jeremy Moussoli
I debated in LD for 3 years at Lincoln East high school and graduated in 2024. Broken at and won/cochamped national circuit and Nebraska circuit tournaments, qualifying for the TOC my senior year. Specialized in critical positions such as Afropess, Cap K, and puar also dabbled in performative and LARP positions. Going to UNL and majoring in civil engineering, I enjoy going on drives, runs, and the gym in my free time.
Jesse Nguyen
Jesse Nguyen has been coaching LD at East High, in Lincoln, Nebraska for three years. They did LD, in high school, for three years, and then NFA-LD (one person policy) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for one. Jesse's students have primarily run critical arguments and have accumulated a total of 6 bids. Jesse was a Nebraska state semi-finalist, their senior year, and received, the NSDA assistant debate coach of the year, in 2022. They recently quit their big adult job to go back to school to study English, with a focus in literary and cultural criticism - their interests are queer theory, critical race theory, and the intersection of both. They ran queer pess and phil as a student and is excited to work with TDC students again! Outside of debate, they like sad poetry, horror, and hiking trails.
Elijah Pitt
Elijah Pitt competed for four years at Fort Lauderdale High School, graduating in 2020. Throughout his debate career, he cleared at multiple national tournaments, reaching finals at Princeton and Florida's state tournament in 2019. Outside of debate, Elijah enjoys playing video games, watching films, and trips to the outdoors. He graduated from the University of Florida this May, and will be attending Columbia Law School in the fall. This is his third year teaching at TDC, and he's excited to be in Austin again this summer!
Bodhi Rosen
Hi! Im Bodhi. Im a first year out debater who is attending Texas State in the fall studying Political Science. Senior year I received Four Bids in Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Co-champing Strake, Semi-finaling both Lexington and Churchill, and Quarter-finaling Harvard. I also have experience in traditional debate, getting third place at UIl State (a texas traditional circuit championship tournament). Im happy to help in any debate form but I have the most experience when it comes to phil positions and some K lit, i.e Deleuze, Baudrillard, and other authors.
Bryce Sheffield
Current debater at the University of Houston appearing at national tournaments such as the National Debate Tournament and outrounds of CEDA. I currently coach for Seven Lakes High School and do private coaching. Under my coaching students have reached deep elim rounds of major national tournaments including Glenbrooks, Blake, and the Tournament of Champions.
Eric Schwerdtfeger
Eric Schwerdtfeger holds a BA in English and a MEd in Curriculum Development and Instruction from Texas A&M University. He currently serves as the Director of Debate for Dulles High School (formerly Westside and Magnolia) and is going back to teaching AP Psychology and AP Research after two years teaching English III. His students have achieved notable successes at events such as TOC, NSDA Nationals, TFA State, UIL State, and HUDL City Championship. He frequently serves as a judge for both Houston locals and on the national circuit. Eric enjoys policy arguments, kritiks, philosophy, and controversies of debate theory. Beyond debate, Eric enjoys reading, hiking, board games, exercise, cooking, and spending quality time with his family.
Joey Tarnowski
Joey Tarnowski is a recent graduate of Samford University, where he competed in policy debate and qualified to the National Debate Tournament 4 times. He competed in Lincoln-Douglas for 4 years in high school, and has been coaching for 4 years. He majored in and is working to earn his Masters degree in computer science.
Alice Waters
Alice competed at Heights High school for four years in policy and LD and qualified to TFA state and the TOC. She was also a Houston Urban Debate League debater! Now, she is an assistant LD coach at The Harker School. Her debate interests include topicality, policy debates, and settler colonialism. She is excited to work at TDC this summer!