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

Jet Semrick

Debate Instructor

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

    • Jet Semrick debated for four years at the University of Kansas. He was a first-round at-large qualifier to the National Debate Tournament in 2023, two-time NDT elimination round competitor, and won four collegiate tournaments. As a result of his success, he was awarded the Donn W. Parson Debate Award by the University of Kansas Department of Communications. In 2019, he won a high school national championship at the National Catholic Forensic League Tournament. Jet has professional experience as a software engineer in the United States and has degrees in computer science and economics. Additionally, he has interests in financial markets, mathematics, sports, and research. While in school, he earned a 3.98 GPA, graduated with honors distinction, and was recognized with the Outstanding Senior Award by the Department of Computer Science. He is fascinated by the competitive nature of debate and believes in its educational benefit for all students.

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.

Jimin Park

Debate Instructor

More about Jimin
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science and Global & International Studies from the University of Kansas

    • Jimin debated for four years at the University of Kansas and three years in high school. He was a first-round at-large bid (a top 16 ranking) to the National Debate Tournament in 2023 and a two-time elimination round debater at the tournament. Jimin was the 2019 high school National (NSDA) Champion in policy debate, where he became the first sibling duo to win the National Speech and Debate Tournament in different years (his younger brother won the tournament in 2022). In high school, Jimin qualified for the Tournament of Champions, was a two-time Kansas state champion in policy debate, and awarded 2nd place in extemporaneous speaking. Outside of debate, Jimin enjoys spending time with friends and traveling to South Korea to visit family.

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!

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.

Dylan Willett

Debate Instructor

More about Dylan
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Communication Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City

    • Dylan has taught ADL students since 2018, first as an onsite coach from the U.S. for a couple of years until he moved to Taiwan in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. He has helped coach Taiwan’s many debate Champions in the most prominent tournaments in the United States: 2018 Middle School National Policy Champions and Semifinalists; 2019 Middle School TOC Champions; 2020 Yale Junior Varsity Champions; 2021 Middle School TOC Champions, and all other champions who broke in major U.S. tournaments since 2018 all have been touched by this man one way or another. In college, he has been ranked in the top 20 among all college policy debaters, qualifying to the National Debate tournament and making it to elimination rounds of multiple other tournaments. Dylan has debated in other styles of debate besides policy achieving multiple tournament-wins and being ranked in the top 10 of all parliamentary debaters. These skills help him adapt to different forums of debate as well as teach innovative combined skills that debaters gain success.

Joel Mounts

Debate Instructor

More about Joel
    Education:
  • B.S. in Biopsychology & Pre-med, Grand Valley State University in Michigan • Grand Valley State University Department of Psychology, Dr. Josita Maouene Lab, Researched & Published Language Development from 2010-12 • University of Arkansas Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Jamie Hestekin Lab, Researched & Published Biofuel Technology 2012

    • Joel’s passion for research and debate began in a suburban Michigan high school. There, he was introduced to Policy Debate and MUN. In college, Joel worked at Dr. Maouene Lab for five semesters, studying and publishing how children naturally acquire language. He also joined Dr. Hestekin lab at the University of Arkansas developing and publishing the university’s first viable system for delivering carbon dioxide to algae used in biofuels. He finished his final year of university with a research and publication in investigating emotional language used in relationships. In his final years of university, Joel dived into teaching these same research skills at his university library. After graduation, Joel went to mainland China to teach English. With over 10 years of teaching experience, 3 years in mainland China, 5 years in Taiwan teaching debate at Asian Debate League, and the remaining years in the U.S. teaching debate, he brings to his class his unique world view, experience, expertise, and energy. Joel currently resides in Michigan and works full-time as a software engineer. He is also the founder of Debatetrack, the #1 Public Forum-lecture channel on YouTube with over 12,000 hours of watch time. Joel is classically trained in violin, an avid tea drinker, a voracious sushi eater, hiker, and a chess player.

ADL-Contracted Research Team

Anthony Trufanov

Debate Instructor

More about Anthony
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science and Modern & Classical Languages, Summa Cum Laude, University of Kentucky

    • Anthony Trufanov is a debate coach and former debater at the University of Kentucky. Anthony achieved many competitive accolades both in college and in high school, winning five national tournaments, the Rex Copeland award for best regular season performance, the second speaker award at the National Debate Tournament, and the Larmon Cup for winning the National Debate Tournament, all in his last year of debate. In high school, Anthony qualified twice to the Tournament of Champions, reaching the quarterfinals his senior year, and won the National Speech and Debate Association national championship in policy debate his junior year. Anthony coached his teams to the elimination debates of the Tournament of Champions every time his teams attended, and has taught at the Dartmouth, Northwestern, and Georgetown debate institutes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ryan Snow

Debate Instructor

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

    • 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.

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.

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.

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.

Maria Sanchez

Debate Instructor

More about Maria
    Education:
  • B.A. in Political Science, International Studies, and Environmental and Sustainability Studies at the University of Kansas

    • Maria graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2020 with three degrees in Political Science, International Studies, and Environmental and Sustainability Studies. She has 8 years of competitive experience in policy debate. Maria debated for Northside College Prep in high school and continued her college debate career at the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky debate team was ranked no. 1 in the nation in 2019 and went on to win the 2019 National Debate Championship. Maria was named Urban Debater of the Year in 2016 by the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. She is currently a Research Professional at the University of Chicago.

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.

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.

Nae Edwars

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.

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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