ADL Teachers

Learn from Our Best Qualified Experts!

ADL hires successful former/current debaters from the US National high school and collegiate debate circuit because they have been trained in and experts of the oldest, the most developed, the highest caliber, and most academically recognized forms of debate in the world of college admissions.

In essence, only those who have actually debated competitively and successfully are hired to teach debate at ADL. Those who have debated non-competitively in college classrooms, clubs, or in their writings/publications are not qualified to teach debate at ADL, but can be hired as excellent teachers of writing and other courses.

Jessie Chen

The Founder and CEO of Asian Debate League

Debate & Writing Instructor

More about Jessie

Gabe Esquivel

Debate Instructor

More about Gabe
    Education:
  • B.A. in Economics at the University of Kansas

    • Gabe debated at the University of Kansas for 3.5 years, both in person and virtually. He has coached high school debate and been a lab instructor at the Jayhawk Debate Institute since 2017 including the online Jayhawk Debate institute in 2020. Gabe specializes in coaching speaking technique, researching impact turns, answering kritiks, and going for conditionality. He believes coaching debate involves significant dialogue with his students and lots of practice. His previous students have qualified for the TOC and NSDA tournaments and frequently made it to elimination rounds of their tournaments. In college, Gabe won multiple regional tournaments and made it to elimination rounds in several national tournaments including the ADA and CEDA tournaments. In high school, he won the “Sunflower District Student of the Year Award”, qualified to the TOC, won the 2016 state championship, and placed 7th at the NSDA tournament championship. Gabe’s favorite debates involve economics, sci-fi technology, and excellent evidence.

Lily Ottinger

Debate Instructor

More about Lily
    Education:
  • B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Kansas

    • Lily debated for 4 years at the University of Kansas, where she won four Texas swing tournaments as well as the NJDDT. Additionally, she reached the elimination rounds of several national tournaments during that time, including both the ADA and CEDA nationals. She has nine years of speech and debate experience total, and spends her summers teaching at the Jayhawk Debate Institute. For the last four years, she has coached high school policy debate at several developing debate programs, including coaching five teams to TOC qualification. Lily has had success in a diversity of debate events, qualifying to national tournaments in 3 different debate types in high school (policy: NSDA 2016, 2017, CFL 2017; Lincoln-Douglas: CFL 2015; Public-Forum: CFL 2016), and holding state championships in both policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of original research,proficiency with technical vocabulary, and persuasion skills. She holds a minor in Russian, and in her free time she enjoys reading Russian literature.

Connor Dennis

Debate & Writing Instructor

More about Connor
    Education:
  • B.A. in History from Boise State University

    • Connor was a policy debater for the Boise High School varsity team, the top high school for debate in Idaho. He attended many local and regional tournaments and consistently received high rankings at both. As an experienced debater, Connor has helped train novice debaters for Policy tournaments. Connor was a recipient of the Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship, a competitive grant offered by the US government to teach in Taiwan. He has served as an English teacher in Yilan and Chiayi, working with elementary and junior high students. In Taiwan, Connor has led students at multiple schools to success in county-wide English-speaking competitions. He also has significant experience preparing students for English proficiency exams. Connor graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boise State University with a bachelor’s degree in History. In his senior thesis, Connor wrote extensively on a plethora of topics including US foreign policy towards Taiwan. His background in history makes him an excellent academic writing instructor as well. Aside from writing scholarly articles, he has also written creatively for a play in college. In addition, Connor has earned his Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certification and is qualified to teach English to second-language speakers across the world.

ADL-Contracted Teachers

Asian Debate League is the Exclusive Agent in Taiwan of the following coaches. 

Please contact ADL if you are interested in taking their classes.

Brandon Gergel

Debate & Writing Instructor

More about Brandon
    Education:
  • M.S. in International Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University
  • B.A. in Economics; Philosophy minor from Saint Joseph’s University
  • Graduated with highest honors, Summa Cum Laude (3.94 GPA) and Phi Beta Kappa membership

    • Brandon has been teaching writing for over a dozen years. An NPR-published writer, he worked for three years as a professional Writing Center teacher. He specializes in working with writers to diagnose their problems as well as making personalized plans to improve students’ writing. Brandon has a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy and an M.S. in International Marketing from the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University, one of the top 10 programs in the U.S. While completing his Master’s, Brandon worked as the Teaching Assistant for the President of Saint Joseph’s University and volunteered as a marketer and researcher in the non-profit health sector in the United States and Spain. He also worked for two years as a TEFL-certified English and debate teacher in South Korea. As an ADL debate instructor, Brandon is uniquely qualified to help students develop the skills ADL prides itself on: producing outstanding debaters and critical thinkers. At their core, debate and writing are similar: both involve analyzing evidence, taking a position, and logically defending it. Students with these abilities will appeal to the best universities and surely be on the road to academic success. It’s Brandon’s goal to help get them there!

ADL-Contracted Research Team

Ryan Snow

Debate Instructor

More about Ryan
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science at the University of Kansas (forthcoming)

    • Ryan debated at the University of Kansas for four years, was an assistant coach at Lawrence Free State high school for two years, and instructed at the Jayhawk Debate Institute over three summers. Debating for KU, he qualified to the elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament, reached the semifinals of the American Debate Association National Tournament, and won the National Junior Division Debate Tournament. His senior year, Ryan was awarded the Donn Parson Debater of the Year award by the University of Kansas Communications Department. As a coach for Lawrence Free State, Ryan helped two teams qualify to the Tournament of Champions, one of which won the tournament in 2022.

Nicholas Joseph Lepp

Debate Instructor

More about Nicholas
    Education:
  • PhD in Communications at University of Georgia (forthcoming)

    • Nicholas is in his 14th year in policy debate. Currently, he is a PhD candidate and assistant debate coach at the University of Georgia where he has coached multiple teams to compete at the NDT. While coaching at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nick coached multiple first-round at large teams to the NDT, including the 3rd ranked college team in the country. At the high school level, Nick has coached teams to the quarterfinals of the TOC, to win the Glenbrooks Invitational, and to late elimination rounds at a variety of other tournaments.

Michael Scott

Debate Instructor

More about Michael Scott
    Education:
  • Education: BA in Economics and Political Science + Minor in Environmental Studies @ the University of Kansas

    • Michael is a National Debate Tournament Semi-finalist, American Debate Association Nationals Semi-Finalist, and NDT First Round recipient from the University of Kansas. He has reached the deep elimination rounds of several major college tournaments and received top 10 speaker awards at several as well. Michael was also a participant in the out-rounds of the Tournament of Champions and received 7 “bids” during his senior year of high school at Glenbrook South. Additionally, he has coached high school teams to reach the Tournament of Champions the past two seasons and has worked with a wide range of students as a lab instructor at the Jayhawk Debate Institute, a summer debate camp hosted by the University of Kansas.

Jet Semrick

Debate Instructor

More about Jet
    Education:
  • B.S. in Computer Science and Finance at the University of Kansas

    • Jet is a debater for the University of Kansas and has been involved in speech and debate for 5 years. On the college circuit, he has competed in elimination debates of multiple tournaments. In high school, he competed on the national circuit and won NCFL nationals in 2019. Jet is passionate about research and enjoys the competitive aspect of policy debate.

Jimin Park

Debate Instructor

More about Jimin
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in East Asian Language and Cultures, Global and International Studies, and Political Science

    • Jimin is debating for a second-year at the University of Kansas and was a lab leader at the Jayhawk Debate Institute in the summer of 2020. In high school, Jimin won the National Speech and Debate Tournament, qualified for the Tournament of Champions, was a two-time state champion in policy debate and awarded 2nd place in extemporaneous speaking at state. In his first year of college debate, he was in finals of the UMKC tournament, won the Emporia tournament, was in semifinals of the Wayne State tournament, octofinals of the Kentucky tournament, and double octofinals at the ADA national tournament. Outside of debate, Jimin enjoys spending time with friends and traveling to South Korea to visit family.

Aaron Kim

Debate Instructor

More about Aaron
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.B.A. and a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science @ Emory University.

    • Aaron is a first year debater at Emory University and a lab leader at the Chicago Debate Summer Institute. In high school, Aaron was in multiple late elimination rounds in national circuit tournaments, receiving 4 bids to the Tournament of Champions. Outside of debate, he enjoys playing basketball and watching anime.

Nick Loew

Debate Instructor

More about Nick
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Government and International Politics and a minor in Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

    • Nick is a third year debater at George Mason University, and previously debated for three years at Perry High School in Massillon, Ohio. In high school he won the OSDA State Championship twice, and twice qualified to NSDA nationals. Additionally, he received speaker awards and broke to elimination rounds of multiple national circuit tournaments in high school, without direct coaching or team provided travel. In college as a freshman, he broke to elimination rounds of various regional and national tournaments, most notably including the Quarterfinals of the ADA championship and Doubles of the NDT. As a sophomore, he broke at multiple tournaments including the Octafinals of the ADA championship, and the Finals of the UMW Debate Tournament. Outside of debate and school, Nick enjoys spending time with friends and playing basketball outdoors.

ADL-Contracted Onsite Coaches

Asian Debate League is the Exclusive Contact and Agent in Taiwan of the following coaches. 

Please contact ADL if you are interested in online courses with the Collegiate Debate Coaches from the US.

Jackson Hoffmann

Debate Instructor

More about Jackson
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Political Sciences at the University of Kansas

    • Jackson debated at Wichita State University for one year and is in his second year debating at the University of Kansas. He has competed in the elimination rounds of several college tournaments since beginning his college debate career, including winning the first half of the 2019 University of Texas – Dallas swing tournament. Before debating in college, Jackson participated in both policy debate and public forum debate in high school. His senior year of high school, he and his partner Gabe qualified for the Tournament of Champions, placed second at the Catholic Forensics League Grand National Tournament, and finished 7th at the National Speech and Debate Association championship – all in policy debate. When not debating, he enjoys keeping up with global politics, discovering new music, and planning his sitcom TV show that he intends on writing one day.
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Nae Edwards

Debate Instructor

More about Nae
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Communications at Wake Forest University

    • Nae debated for Wake Forest University for 3 years. In his time in high school, he was able to aquire 10 total bids to the Tournament of Champions between his junior and senior year. During his time at Wake Forest, Nae has qualified as a first-round at-large bid to the National Debate Tournament every year he has competed (3). Also, at the National Debate Tournament Nae has been in both the octo-finals and the semi-finals of the tournament – all in policy debate. As a coach, Nae has coached multiple high school teams into qualifying and debating in the elimination rounds of the Tournament of Champions. When Nae is not debating he enjoys music, video games, and reading new literature.

Dominik Lett

Debate Instructor

More about Dominik
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science from Wichita State University

    • Dominikdebated for Wichita State University for three years. While at WSU, he won several regional tournaments and appeared in elimination rounds of many national tournaments including the National Debate Tournament and the ADA National Championship. In his senior year of high school, he was state champion, ranked top 15 in the US, and acquired five bids to the Tournament of Champions. As a coach for high school and college, his students have seen considerable competitive success on both regional and national levels. In his free time, Dominik enjoys researching foreign affairs, traveling, and working out.

Arnav Gupta

Debate Instructor

More about Arnav
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Data Science Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago

    • Arnav Gupta is a former debater at College Prep, and has been involved with debate for 7 years now. While competing in high school, he was a qualifier to the Tournament of Champions, NSDA, and NDCA, and consistently reached elimination rounds of major National Circuit tournaments. Some of his notable performances include reaching the finals of Jack Howe, quarterfinals of ASU, quarterfinals of Bronx, quarterfinals of Stanford, and quarterfinals of Bingham. He also won the Dartmouth Debate Institute tournament in 2017, while being the top speaker at the entire camp. Since graduating, due to the lack of a policy debate team at UChicago, Arnav continued to stay active in the high school debate community, judging and coaching students at College Prep. While coaching, he prioritized teaching students how to be flexible in their argumentation styles, and helping debaters feel comfortable going for a variety of arguments, whether policy or kritik. Most recently, he helped foster the debate program at Lane Tech, providing original creative research and helping out with judging commitments. At Lane Tech, Arnav mentored a small, under-resourced forensics team, and coached a team (Lane Tech NP) to multiple bid rounds and a qualification to the Tournament of Champions.

Jacob Wilkus

Debate Instructor

More about Jacob
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science, University of Kansas

    • Jacob Wilkus is a second-year debater for the University of Kansas, and previously debated for four years at Lawrence Free State High School. While in high school, he became the second team in school history to earn a bid to the TOC, and placed in the top 16 at the NSDA National Championship. In his freshman year at KU, he won both the UT San Antonio and Minnesota tournaments, was a semifinalist at the UT Dallas tournament and National Junior Division Debate Tournament (NJDDT), and was an octofinalist at the ADA National Championship. During that time, he also intermittently coached for Lawrence Free State, including coaching their team during their championship run at the 2022 TOC. Outside of debate, Jacob loves spending time with friends, time outdoors hiking and backpacking, and indoors programming and playing video games.

Samir Rahaman

Debate Instructor

More about Samir
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Kansas

    • Samir is a second-year debater at the University of Kansas. During his freshman year at KU, he won two Texas swing tournaments and reached the octafinals of the ADA national tournament. In high school, Samir won and was in the late elimination rounds of multiple national circuit tournaments. Outside of debate, he enjoys studying and playing the guitar.

Nigel Taylor

Debate Instructor

More about Nigel
    Education:
  • B.A. in Public Relations and minor in International Business at the Western Kentucky University

    • Nigel is former debater for W. Kentucky and has been involved in speech and debate for over a decade. As a debater competed in Policy Debate for 3 years and Lincoln Douglas Debate for 1 year where he managed to receive several bids to the TOC, Top Speaker awards and reached late elimination rounds of every national circuit tournament attended. His success as a high school debater led him to receive numerous full-ride scholarships to college for debate. As a coach Nigel has led students to champion national tournaments all over the US, accruing a total of over 80 bids to date. Nigel is most at home in fast paced and competitive pre-round preparation environments. When not coaching, Nigel enjoys traveling and reading philosophy and psychology based academic literature.

ADL-Contracted Online Instructors

Asian Debate League is the Exclusive Contact and Agent in Taiwan of the following coaches. 

Please contact ADL if you are interested in online courses with the Top-Tier Debate Directors from the US.

Stefan Bauchard

NSDA Asia & TOC Intl. Consultant

Former Harvard Debate Coach

More about Stefan
  • Stefan Bauschard has been a policy debate coach for the Harvard University Debate Council for over a decade, and currently the Debate Coach for Lakeland School District, Stefan has been actively teaching speaking and debating in the United States at both the high school and college levels since 1994. During that time, he has taught hundreds of students, developed and tabulated more than seventy-five tournaments, spent thousands of hours developing research and instructional materials for debaters all over the country, and has developed academic speech and debate workshops in the United States and abroad.

    • Stefan is available for Public Forum coaching.

Brian Manuel

Stanford University Debate Director

More about Brian
  • Brian is the Director of Policy Debate at Stanford University and the Director of Debate at Edgemont High School. Prior to Stanford, Brian coached for Harvard University, where his teams were greatly successful achieving multiple First Round At-Large bids to the National Debate Tournament and participating in elimination rounds at every tournament they attended. At Stanford, Brian has coached teams to the elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament, Cross-Examination Debate Association National Championship along with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Arizona State, Gonzaga, and San Francisco State University. On the high school circuit, Brian has coached the champions of the 2003 Bronx Science, 2008 Barkley Forum, 2011 Meadows & USC tournaments, and the 2012 Golden Desert Invitational. In addition, Brian has had multiple teams in the elimination rounds of the Tournament of Champions, NDCA, NCFL, and NSDA Nationals with finals finishes in 2007 and 2012, in addition to coaching the top speaker at NSDA Nationals in 2013. In 2015, Brian began coaching debate at Edgemont high school.  In his first year, Brian coached one Policy team to the TOC, with the team earning 6 TOC bids and reaching the quarterfinals at Harvard. One of the debaters was accepted to Harvard and the other to Stanford. In only his second year at Edgement (2016-17), he has grown the team to more than 50 debaters.

    • Brian will be tutoring in Policy, PD, and Lincoln-Douglas.

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