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Confirmed 2020 Staff members!

Brendon Bankey, Director of Debate

Brendon is the Director of Debate and co-Director of the UTNIF. He currently teaches Argumentation & Advocacy at the University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Communication Studies. Brendon is excited to bring his experience to his second summer at the UTNIF. He co-coached the #1 ranked team in the nation and champions of the 2018 National Debate Tournament as a graduate assistant debate coach at the University of Kansas. Brendon received his Master’s Degree and served as a graduate assistant debate coach at Wake Forest University. Throughout his career, Brendon has been actively involved in high school debate. He was an assistant coach at Pace Academy for five years. Some of Pace’s accomplishments during that span include winning the 2015 National Debate Coaches Association Tournament; winning the Glenbrooks, Michigan, and MBA; and receiving the top speaker award at St. Marks. Prior to working for Pace, Brendon spent four seasons working with Whitney Young, which culminated in an elimination debate appearance at the Tournament of Champions. Several of Brendon’s former summer debate workshops have gone on to debate in college at competitive programs throughout the United States. These students have attended schools such as the University of Kansas, Baylor University, Indiana University, Liberty University, and the University of Southern California.

Eric Lanning, Program Coordinator

Eric Lanning is currently the Program Coordinator for the University of Texas National Institute in Forensics, where he also helps to coach the speech and debate teams. Prior to joining the University of Texas, Eric lived and worked in China for 3 years as the Academic Director of speech and debate for the National Speech and Debate Association of China. Before moving to China, Eric spent 15+ years at the top levels of competitive policy debate. As a competitor in college, Eric’s accomplishments include winning the National Debate Tournament (2010), winning the Kentucky Tournament (2010) and the prestigious Kentucky Round Robin (2011) as well as being the Top Speaker at both. In 3 appearances at the NDT, 2 of them as a First Round at Large Bid (Top 16) Eric advanced to the elimination rounds as the 2nd seed twice (2010, 2015), advancing to the Octofinals (2009) and Quarterfinals (2015) as well as being the 2nd ranked speaker (2010). In addition to his own competitive success, Eric has worked with some of the most successful high school debaters and programs of the last decade as a coach. These accolades include winning the prestigious Baker Award for season long excellence, Back to Back National Championships at the Tournament of Champions, as well as the Winner and Top Speaker at nearly every major National Tournament, including Greenhill, St. Marks, the Glenbrooks, the Barkley Forum, the Montgomery Bell Academy, and Harvard. Eric is originally from Houston, Texas and attended both Michigan State University and the University of Houston, where he graduated with a degree in political science.

Dr. Allie Chase, Senior Faculty, Survivors Supersession

Dr. Allie Chase is currently the Associate Director of the William Pitt Debating Union at the University of Pittsburgh. She has almost a decade of debate coaching experience, including five years at the University of Kansas where she coached teams to elimination rounds at every national tournament as well as countless regional tournaments. She has coached the Rex Copeland Award recipients, NDT champions, and an NDT top speaker. Allie also has extensive high school coaching experience including coaching NSDA National Tournament and CFL National Tournament champions and TOC finalists. She has directed and instructed at summer debate institutes for the past six years. In addition to the competitive aspects of debate, Allie believes deeply in the transformative potential of argument for personal growth, education, and socio-political change.

Ricky Garner, Senior Faculty, Survivors

Dr. Richard Garner is currently the Director of Debate at the University of Houston. Since first teaching atthe UTNIF in 2003, he’s taught labs at every skill level, helped design institute curriculum, and worked with students on everything from anarchy, to space elevators, to psychoanalysis. Before coming toHouston, he coached at Harvard for a decade, after stints at NYU, Columbia, and Emory. In the past, he’s had the privilege of coaching debaters that have won CEDA Nationals, the TOC, and top speaker at the NDT. In college, he won the CEDA National Championship at New York University, and in high school he debated in the late elims of both the UIL and TFA State Tournaments.

Ian Beier, Senior Faculty Member, Sophomore Select Supersession

Ian is the Director of Debate at College Preparatory School in Oakland and a PhD student in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas. In 2017, CPS qualified four teams to the TOC and the squad has cleared at the tournament multiple times during his time working with the program. He has been an assistant coach at the University of Kansas for five years. He was formerly Assistant Coach at Damien High School. In 2015, his squad was in finals of the NSDA tournament. Prior to his time at Damien, he was the Assistant Director of Debate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Ryan Wash, Senior Faculty Member, Theories of Power and Resistance Supersession

Ryan Wash, Director of Debate at Weber State University, is among the most successful people in the history of competitive policy debate, including being among the select few ‘Unite the Crowns’ by winning both the National Debate Tournament and the Cross-Examination Debate Association Championship both as a competitor (2013) and a coach (2017). His personal accolades include not only recognition of his competitive success but also his commitment to community, including Community Advocate of the Year (Weber, 2019), Western Region Critic of the Year (2019), Dr. Forreest C. Crawford Dinstinguished Stewardship Award (2018) and the Ovid Davis Coaching Award for NDT Champion Coach (2017). Ryan also facilitates workshops on social justice , deliberative democracy, and debate. His educational motivation stems from his desire to actualize the power of voice and story in deliberation.

LaToya Green, Senior Faculty Member, Theories of Power and Resistance

LaToya Green has 14 years of experience in competitive policy debate. Ms. Green experienced significant success in the five years she competed at Emporia State University, most notably earning ESU’s first individual speaker award in 50 years at the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in 2011 and being awarded the prestigious Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) “Debater of the Year” award in 2012, her final season. After competing, Ms. Green turned to coaching by accepting a graduate assistantship at Wake Forest University. The assistant coaching experience earned at WFU provided Ms. Green the opportunity to return to her alma mater, ESU, in 2014 as Director of Debate, before transitioning into the same role at Cal State Fullerton in Fall 2015. Ms. Green, who is the youngest director of debate in the country, has experienced competitive success in all divisions of the activity. During her short tenure as a director, she has been recognized as CEDA Mid-America Critic of the Year (2015), Coach of the Year (Weber State- 2015), and as the 2017 recipient of the Galentine Award, which recognizes exceptional women in coaching.

David Kilpatrick, Instructor, 2 week program

David Kilpatrick recently gradated from University of Texas after debating for 5 years and has been actively involved with debate for over a decade. He currently coaches at Westwood High School and UT. During the 2018-19 season he’s coached teams to qualifications to the Tournament of Champions and the National Debate Tournament, including the Championship of the Longhorn Classic. This is his 7th UTNIF and he’s thrilled to be leading survivors this year. He absolutely loves debate and hopes to help students meet and exceed their goals for the next season.

Nico Juarez, Instructor, 2 week program

Nico Juarez has been involved in debate for 8 years now. Seeing teaching and learning as a site for liberation and enlightenment, Nico combines his experience doing competitive debate, his role as an active scholar in the humanities, and pedagogies of care to support students in achieving their personal and educational goals. Nico was a two-time first-round debater at the University of Oklahoma and succeeded in reaching elimination rounds at the National Debate Tournament multiple times. As a coach, Nico has experience working with a variety of traditional policy debate and critical debate students from both small and large schools. Outside of debate and academia, Nico enjoys visiting museums and wandering through book stories with coffee in hand. If asked about psychoanalysis, he tends to talk a lot.

Zachary, Junior Instructor, 2 week program

Zachary Watts is a rising third-year debater for the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, he debates as a 2N/1A, but also has previous experience in the 2A/1N position. This will be his second year working with the UTNIF. He looks forward to both deepening his knowledge and literature base for anti-blackness studies and providing assistance for the high school debaters attending the camp. Outside of debate, Zachary is a rising third-year chemical engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Will Coltzer, Junior Instructor, 2 week program

William Coltzer is a rising third year at the Unuversity of Texas at Austin. Will studies government and has competed for UT the past two years. As a college debater, he has qualified to the National Debate Tournament (NDT) twice and was invited to the Pitt Round Robin. In highshool, he competed for Winston Churchill (Tx) in both LD and Policy. His senior year he was in the quarters of Greenhill, Emory, Grapevine, and the TFA state tournament. He attended the UTNIF as a high schooler and worked the camp last year as an RA/lab assistant.