Executive Board of the National Debate Coaches Association
The members of the NDCA Executive Board are committed to continuing the vision of the organization’s founders, namely to support the health and vitality of the debate community broadly, and coaches more specifically.
Our ultimate vision is to provide opportunities for high school coaches to strengthen their abilities in order to provide stronger learning environments for their students. This vision and support comes in many concrete and diverse forms: sharing best practices in coaching and teaching; fostering curriculum development; compiling coaching resources; creation of the Open Evidence Project; providing professional development opportunities; and promotion of regional debate.
Executive Board Membership
Brian Manuel, Director of Debate, Edgemont Junior-Senior High School (NY)
Position: Chair of the Executive Board
Questions and input regarding Board elections, membership votes, agenda items for the NDCA and general inquires should be directed to Brian: contact@debatecoaches.org
Elected Term: October 2021 to October 2024
Tim Alderete, Meadows School (NV)
Position: Conference Coordinator
Tim Alderete has coached speech and debate for thirty two years, including the last twenty at The Meadows School in Las Vegas. He has coached debate state champions in Illinois, Michigan, and Nevada. He has taught at debate camps for twenty five years, primarily at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. He has coached policy debate, Lincoln Douglas debate, student congress, and is beginning to lean back into oratory.
Elected Term: October 2021 to October 2024
Contact: timalderete@yahoo.com
Tim Mahoney, St. Mark’s School of Texas (TX)
Position: Director of the NDCA National Championships
Tim has been the Director of Debate at the St. Mark's School of Texas for 21 years. He is a 3 Diamond NSDA coach. He has served as the Director of the NDCA National Championship for several years.
Elected Term: October 2023 to October 2026
Contact: pacedebate@gmail.com
Jasmine Stidham, Michigan State University (MI)
Position: Web Manager, Public Relations, & Mentorship Program Coordinator
Jasmine Stidham is a debate coach at Michigan State University. Before joining MSU, she was an assistant coach for Dartmouth College for five years. She was previously the Assistant Director of Debate at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, CA. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she debated for four years in college policy debate. As a high school coach, Jasmine has qualified dozens of students to the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate, including two TOC finalists. Her students closed out the 2019 NDCA National Championship in LD, and won the Dukes & Bailey Cup in 2021. At the collegiate level, Jasmine helped coach Dartmouth to win the 2021 Copeland Award and the National Debate Tournament two years in a row. She is also the director of Girls Debate, an organization dedicated to highlighting issues facing gender minorities in debate and providing free resources to the debate community.
Elected Term: October 2021 to October 2024
Contact: jasminestidham@gmail.com
Greg Achten, The Harker School (CA)
Position: Co-Tournament Coordinator
Greg Achten has been coaching speech and debate for more than 30 years, at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. He has been at Harker for 13 years. Prior to coming to Harker, he was the director of debate at the University of California, Berkeley. He has coached multiple national champions in speech and debate, including the 2022 champions and finalists in public forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate.
Elected Term: October 2022 to October 2025
Contact: greg.achten@harker.org
Shree Awsare, North Broward Preparatory School (FL)
Position: Curriculum Coordinator & Coordinator of the Open Evidence Project
Shree Awsare is the Director of Forensics at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, FL, where he teaches middle school and upper school classes in Speech and Debate. As a competitor, Shree participated in policy debate and international extemp at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, and subsequently founded the Policy Debate Union at Columbia University in New York. Prior to teaching at North Broward, he completed law school at Georgetown University Law Center and worked as an assistant policy coach at James Madison University, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and Broad Run High School in Virginia. Since Shree started his position at North Broward, he's had the privilege of working with students performing at the highest level in policy and public forum, including the 2018 Baker Award Winners, 2018 NDCA Policy Champions, and 2019 TOC Policy Champions. Shree is a strong believer in debate's capacity to cultivate future generations of great thinkers and leaders.
Elected Term: October 2022 to October 2025
Contact: shree.awsare@nbps.org
Maggie Berthiaume, Woodward Academy (GA)
Position: Internal Communications Officer
Maggie Berthiaume is the Director of Debate at Woodward Academy. At Woodward, Maggie has coached the champions or finalists of nearly every major tournament including NDCA Nationals. Her teams have also won the Georgia state tournament in seven of the eleven years that she's served as director. As a debater, Maggie competed for the Blake School in Minneapolis, MN and Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. While at Dartmouth, she reached the semifinals of the CEDA Nationals and was twice a first round at-large invitee to the National Debate Tournament, reaching the quarterfinals her senior year. Maggie has previously served two terms on the NDCA Board as well as many years on the Executive Committee of the Georgia Forensics Coaches Association. She's a member of the Georgia Hall of Fame and has been named Coach of the Year by the GFCA and Educator of the Year by the NDCA.
Elected Term: October 2023 to October 2026
Contact: maggiekb@gmail.com
Scott Wheeler, Peninsula High School (CA)
Position: Membership Coordinator & Co-Tournament Coordinator
Scott Wheeler has been the Director of Debate at Peninsula High School since 2016, where he was previously head coach of policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate beginning in 2013. In that time, the school has maintained competitive success in Lincoln-Douglas debate, while growing from zero varsity policy teams to a dozen. In addition to the NDCA board, Scott serves on the TOC Advisory Committee, directs the Peninsula tournament, and serves as an instructor at summer institutes. Scott has a BS in Communication from Northwestern and an MA from Pepperdine’s College of Communication. Scott is an advocate for urban and regional policy debate and does his best to motivate students of all levels to be inspired by debate.
Elected Term: October 2022 to October 2025
Contact: scottwheels@mac.com
Sohail Jouya, Poly Prep School(NY)
Position:
Sohail Jouya has been a director and coach of collegiate, high school, and even middle school debate for the past decade. Most recently as a collegiate Director of Debate and coach, he has coached teams to deep elimination rounds at CEDA and qualified several teams to the NDT as well as the NPDA National Champions and the NFALD National Champion. At the high school level, he has coached several Policy debate teams, Lincoln-Douglas debaters, and Public Forum (and Extemporaneous Speakers) teams to the TOC, NDCA, NSDA, and deep elimination rounds of NCFL. As a high school director, he led one of his programmes to a #1 international ranking in terms of NSDA degree strength where they also won NDCA Novice National Championships in CX and LD. He also led a Kansas City Urban Debate League middle school programme to a #2 ranking in terms of NSDA degree strength with a quarterfinal placing at NSDA Nationals. He is an advocate for the activity and the transformative and liberatory potential that debate can instill in students.
Elected Term: October 2023 to October 2026
Contact: sohailjouya@gmail.com