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

Henry Mitchell

Debate Instructor

More about Henry
    Education:
  • B.A. Degrees in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Minor in Computer Science from the Emory University

    • Henry is one of the top-ranking collegiate debaters, and has 8 years of debate experience. He has debated four years in high school, where he was quite successful, ultimately making it to finals of the Tournament of Champions his final year. Henry received Emory debate scholarship, and since joining its team he has qualified to the National Debate Tournament all four years. He has been in elimination rounds of every tournament his junior and senior year, including reaching the quarterfinals of several major national college tournaments. He has received numerous speaker awards, including top speaker at the Rutgers Round Robin and placing in the top 10 at the Northwestern Season Opener. As a debate instructor, he also has many years of experience. He started coaching middle school policy debate in Chicago when he was onlly a sophomore in high school, and since then has continued coaching every year, including the Pine Crest High School under Jeremy Hammond. He has also led a lab at the Chicago Debate Summer Institute.

Jordan Di

Debate Instructor

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

    • Jordan is one of the top ranking collegiate debaters. He has debated in middle, high school, and in college, altogether 11 years in policy debate. He has qualified to the Tournament of Champion (TOC) in high school. In college, as a recipient of a full debate scholarship, Jordan has qualified to the National Debate Tournament all four years breaking into deep elimination rounds. All throughout his debate career, he has distinguished himself with numerous speaker awards. Jordan has coached all four years while in college. He has trained students in various formats including policy debate, LD, and PF. In his last year in college, he has coached the Palos Verde Peninsula High School teams, and five of his teams have qualified to the TOC and two teams have gained the top 10 ranking on the national circuit. Before Peninsula, he coached Alpharetta High School for three years where his multiple teams qualified to the TOC and one of the teams became the top 10 on the national circuit.

Elmer Yang

Debate Instructor

More about Elmer
    Education:
  • B.A. in Business Honors and BA in Plan II Liberal Arts Honors at the University of Texas-Austin.

    • Elmer Elmer debated at the University of Texas and Mckinney Boyd High School for 5 years. He has been coaching Policy, LD, and Public Forum debate for 6 years, helping more than 60 students qualify for the Tournament of Champions across all 3 events. Elmer’s students have gone on to win multiple national championships and tournaments including the Tournament of Champions, the Middle School Tournament of Champions, the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament, the Stanford Invitational, the Harvard-Westlake Debates, and New York City Invitational. As a competitor, Elmer became the first team in his school’s history to qualify for both the Texas state tournament and NSDA Nationals in Policy Debate. Elmer has taught students across a variety of skill levels, from middle school novices to high school varsity. Elmer’s teaching philosophy involves an emphasis on practice/repetition and breaking down complex subjects into more simple parts to help increase persuasion. His interests include cooking, board games like scrabble, and playing tennis.

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.

ADL-Contracted Research Team

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jared Adam

Debate Instructor

More about Jared
    Education:
  • Pursing a B.A in Economics and a B.A. in Finance at the University of Kentucky

    • Jared is a current debater at Kentucky and has been in the activity for over seven years. In high school he qualified for the TOC twice and competed in the deep eliminations of a couple tournaments on the national circuit. In college, Jared has made it to the eliminations of various national tournaments, including Northwestern, ADA, and CEDA. In pursuing competitive achievements, Jared hopes to follow in the footsteps of his two brothers who enjoyed tremendous success during their time in the activity. During the summers, he enjoys teaching at the Gonzaga Debate Institute and researching various debate topics. Outside of the activity, Jared loves playing basketball, and traveling around the world.

Maria Sanchez

Debate Instructor

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

    • 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.

Andrea Moreno

Debate Instructor

More about Andrea
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Communications & English Degree at Gonzaga University

    • Andrea competes for Gonzaga University. She qualified for the TOC in high school and went to the Gonzaga Debate Institute along with the RKS for camp during high school. She is currently competing and in previous year made it to the finals at the tournament, qualifying to the NDT. Due to her love in research, she is currently a Research Assistant for a former Semi-finalist NDT debater who is a tenure at Gonzaga University working for the Communications Department. Aside from debate, she loves reading, going to concerts, and collecting postcards.

Micah Wang

Debate Instructor

More about Micah
    Education:
  • Pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and a Minor in Economics at Emory University

    • Micah is a first year debater at Emory University. In high school, Micah has had experience in Policy, Public Forum, and Worlds Schools Debate, qualifying to and competing at the Tournament of Champions and the National Speech & Debate Tournament for 4 years. Outside of debate, he enjoys hanging out with friends and watching random documentaries on YouTube.

Kwudjwa Osei

Debate Instructor

More about Kwudjwa
    Education:
  • B.A. in History and B.A. in Sociology from University of Pittsburgh

    • Kwudjwa graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022 having debated for three and a half years at the William Pitt Debating Union in collegiate policy debate. Kwudjwa began debating at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School where they began debating on the national circuit in their fourth year and received the national top speaker award at NSDA. Kwudjwa continued debating in college while pursuing a double major, ending their junior year as a semi-finalist at the National Debate Tournament before choosing to complete their majors. Kwudjwa has experience debating with and coaching students from many different debate circuits. In their spare time, Kwudjwa enjoys traveling, working on writing projects, and spending quality time with loved ones.

Alex Reznik

Debate Instructor

More about Alex
    Education:
  • B.S.from the University of Pittsburgh summa in Biological Sciences and a Global Studies Certificate. Currently pursuing an MD/PhD candidate at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

    • Alex has seven years of policy debate experience including at the highest levels of competition including the National Debate Tournament (NDT) and American Debate Association (ADA) elimination rounds. He debated for three years at Glenbrook North High School and then attended the University of Pittsburgh on debate scholarship. Alex speaks English, Russian, and basic Spanish. He has experience tutoring students from a variety of backgrounds, having previously coached debate at US high schools, tutored students who recently resettled to the US as refugees, and as a teaching assistant in university-level biology courses.

Max Lillich

Debate Instructor

More about Max
    Education:
  • B.A. from the University of Kansas in Political Science with minors in Sociology and Business, and currently pursuing a Juris Doctor

    • Max graduated from KU with highest distinction, departmental honors, and university honors, and currently pursuing a law degree. Max debated at Lawrence Free State high school. During his time in high school debate, he was the Kansas 6A 2-speaker champion, runner-up, and took 12th at NSDA nationals. Max also debated at the University of Kansas during his freshman year. He firmly believes that debate is the most educational activity high school students can compete in. He is passionate about enabling students to have the transformative educational experience of debate. He particularly enjoys seeing students develop portable skills through debate that benefit them in many aspects of their life beyond debate. Outside of debate Max enjoys riding my bike, lifting weights, reading true crime novels, and watching football.

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.

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.

Nick Loew

Debate Instructor

More about Nick
    Education:
  • 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.

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