UTNIF Policy Debate Faculty

Ricky Garner began his debate career right here in Texas at South Garland High School before going on to compete for four years at New York University. Winning several collegiate tournaments along the way to qualifying for the NDT all four years, he and his partner advanced to the octofinals in 2003, the same year that they won the 2003 CEDA National Championship. Since then, he has helped coach the 2004 CEDA National Champions from Emory University, and the 2005 TOC Winners from The Westminster School. He has also coached teams from NYU and Columbia University, as well as for The Marist School and Stuyvesant High School. He is currently doing graduate work for his Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo.

Brian McBride - knows what it's like to come from a small no-name high school and take down your opponents no matter what their income bracket. Brian debated at Westbury High School in Houston, Texas for a squad that was lucky to have five members competing at one time. In Brian's senior year in high school he amassed a win-loss record of 117 wins and 11 losses, winning twelve tournaments. Brian went on to debate for the University of Texas were he received a first round at large bid to the National Debate Tournament three years in a row, winning multiple tournaments and many top five speaker awards. After graduated from the University of Texas he went on to coach Northwestern to win THREE NDT titles, he brought a rag tag group of debaters from Redlands to the quarters of the NDT twice and now he coaches at the University of Southern California.

Kate Richey was a successful high school debater for Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio, winning speaker awards and competing in elimination rounds at several tournaments throughout her 3 year career.  Kate debated in college for the University of Texas at San Antonio and competed in elims at many tournaments including the CEDA National Tournament.  For the last 2 years Kate has coached teams from the University of Central Oklahoma to qualify for the NDT and compete in elims at the CEDA National Tournament.  She is currently a Phd candidate in Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.

Jairus GROVE: Harvard Debate Coach, International Relations Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 2nd speaker at the 2000 National Debate Tournament, NDT semifinalist, former Director Chicago Debate Commission.

Claire McKinney debated for the University of Texas for four years, where she was president of the team for three. She made it to outrounds of numerous regional and national tournaments. She currently is the assistant coach of the Kinkaid School, where she has coached multiple teams to the TOC and to winning tournaments such at Grapevine, St. Mark's, UC Berkeley, the Barkeley Forum, and the University of Texas. She is also the director of the Brooklyn Debate Resource Center, where she coaches debaters from the New York Urban Debate League. Next year, she will be attending graduate school at the University of Chicago.

Blake Johnson was an LD debater in high school.  He began policy debate as a novice and quickly became very successful.  Last year he advanced to elimination rounds at every national tournament including an octas appearance at the NDT and a quarters debate at CEDA Nationals.  This year, he is Oklahoma's superstar in the running for TOP team in the COUNTRY. Winner of the Harvard, Wake Forest, Northwestern, North Texas, and Central Oklahoma tournaments; 2007 CEDA National Champion!

 Sherry Hall is the co-director of the Harvard Debate Council.  She has spent the better half of her life coaching high school and college debaters. This summer will mark her 25th year of working with high school students at debate camps, and her second time to join the faculty at UTNIF. Throughout those years, she has worked with a number of outstanding high school -- and later successful college -- debaters, including some members of the UTNIF faculty this summer.  She has coached one NDT championship team, one CEDA national championship team, two Copeland Award winners (which recognizes the outstanding debate team in the nation at the end of the "regular" season), two top-speakers at CEDA and one at the NDT, numerous final round appearances at the NDT, and the winners of every major college tournament including: The Kentucky Round Robin, The Dartmouth Round Robin, The Henry Clay Debates, Wake Forest, Northwestern, USC, Fullerton and Georgia State. She was named "Coach of the Year" at the Wake Forest University Franklin Shirley Classic tournament last November.  As a debater and then a young coach, Sherry was concerned with the underrepresentation of women and people-of-color as participants and coaches.  She, along with Rebecca Bjork, initiated a "grass-roots" level project in the 1990s to bring issues of concern to the attention of the community by establishing group discussion seminars at tournaments.  She encouraged those who ran summer institutes to promote diversity in their hiring and to hold similar group discussion seminars to encourage student participation and feedback.  While the bulk of her time is dedicated to the Harvard Debate Council and the college debate circuit, she has established a significant presence in high school debate as well.  Partnered with Colin Kahl at Michigan, she started the intensive seven-week camp for juniors and ran that program for six summers.  She has been the editor-in-chief of the Planet Debate evidence database (formerly HARVEX) for two decades.  She is the tournament director for the Harvard High School National Invitational Forensics Tournament which draws over 3,000 competitors a year.

Nate Gorelick has been an assistant coach for the Harvard University debate team for more than two years.  He debated for four years at New York University, where he won the 2003 CEDA National Championship, qualified for the NDT four consecutive times, took first place at several tournaments including those held at Cornell, Columbia, the University of Rochester, and the University of Kansas, and received numerous top speaker awards.  He is the former Program Director of the Brooklyn Debate Resource Center, an after-school extension of the New York Urban Debate League, and he is currently a Ph.D. student of Comparative Literature with a Presidential Fellowship at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  He has been teaching at the UTNIF since 2002.

Teddy Albiniak - NDT first round recipient and NDT quarterfinalist for the University of Redlands, Teddy moved north to complete his masters degree at San Francisco State University. Recognized as the 2006 CEDA critic of the year for the West, he is excited about his third year at the UTINF and spending the summer in awesome Austin, Texas.

JV REED As a debater for the University of Texas at Austin, J.V. Reed made three appearances in elimination rounds at the NDT - twice as a quarterfinalist. J.V. was also a two time first round at large bid recipient. J.V. began teaching at the UTNIF in 1996 and has also worked with the Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas and the Chicago Urban Debate League. J.V. coached for the University of Texas in 2007 and lives in New York City.

Brian “BP” Peterson debated at the University of Texas, where he reached the elimination rounds of CEDA Nationals and the NDT. Despite moderate competitive success, his proudest accomplishment was being voted “most likely to answer the K with Khalilzad.” His pale complexion unable to stand the heat, he moved to Chicago to work with the Chicago Urban Debate League and work on a graduate degree in queer theory. He is currently the full-time assistant coach for Glenbrook South HS, where he has coached the top seed and top speaker at the Greenhill tournament, and the Illinois state champions in both JV and Varsity.

Dan LUXEMBERG, Harvard University; NDT Semi-Finalist and has qualified to the NDT as one of the sixteen top ranked teams in the country TWICE; a former UTNIF alum, we are proud to have to Dan on board with us this summer.

Mike JONES: Mike is a debater at the University of Southern California. In two years of college debate, he has appeared in elimination rounds at the NDT, Kentucky, Wake Forest, West Georgia, and Gonzaga. Originally from Salt Lake City Utah, at Highland High School, Mike and his partner won the Wake Forest, USC, and Alta tournaments. Additionally Mike appeared in late elimination rounds at some of the most prestigious tournaments in the country, including Montgomery Bell Academey, UC Berkeley, the Glenbrooks, and more. Mike was the top speaker at the USC high school tournament, and earned top 10 speaker awards at MBA, Wake Forest, Redlands, New Trier, and the USC Round Robin.

Chris Jones: is an incoming senior at USC. He is a 3-time NDT qualifier, a semi-finalist at this year's Gonzaga tournament, a 2-time Colorado state debate champion, qualifying to NFL nationals twice. Chris also has been a fellow at the Arizona Debate Institute twice and been a research assistant for Victory Briefs. Most importantly, Chris loves bad pop music, USC football and was a former UTNIFer himself.

Subject to change and final University approval.