Policy Lab Leader

Associate Director of Debate - University of Georgia

Seungwon (pronounced sue-won), right, recieved his MA in Communication from Wake Forest University in 2011, where he also completed his BA in 2009.  His teams have advanced to the elimination rounds of every major tournament, including the semifinals of the National Debate Tournament.  Seungwon currently coaches at the University of Georgia, where he also teaches a collegiate course on debate and argumentation.

Policy Lab Leader

Junior - Northwestern University

Peyton Lee is a junior on the Northwestern University debate team.  She debated for Pace Academy in High School, winning three Georgia High School State Championships and finishing twice as the top Negative speaker.  She qualified three times for the Tournament of Champions and finished in the quarter-finals as a Senior. She has qualified for and advanced to elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament in each year of college, and was nationally ranked in the top ten teams as a sophomore.  As a junior she has been a co-champion of the Wake Forest National Debate Tournament and been ranked nationally in the top six college teams.

Lab Leader

Graduate Assistant Coach - University of Georgia

Rob is a coach and M.A. Candidate in Speech Communication at UGA. He recently completed his B.A. in Political Science and English at Northwestern University, where he received a first round bid to and reached the quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament. Before Northwestern, he debated for and attended Celebration High School in Orlando, Florida.

Policy Lab Leader

Phd Candidate - Rhetoric, University of Illinois

As a debater at the University of Georgia, Hays was a 4-time qualifier for the NDT, a two-time octofinalist at the NDT, and a top-5 first round bid recipient to the NDT.  As a coach at Liberty University and the University of Georgia, Hays coached teams to the elimination rounds of nearly every major college tournament.  As an assistant coach at the Westminster schools, Hays also helped coach teams to victory at numerous national high school tournaments, including the last three Tournament of Champion winners.  Having taught at summer debate institutes since 2004, Hays has recently led labs at the Emory National Debate Institute, the Michigan Debate Institutes, and the Spartan Debate Institutes. 

PF Lab Leader – Mario Herrera

Director of Debate - Henry W. Grady HS, Atlanta

Mario graduated from the University of New Mexico summa cum laude from the College of Education.  Besides serving as Vice-President and President of the New Mexico Speech and Debate Association, he was three times named Speech Coach of the Year and once named Debate Coach of the Year by NMSDA and named Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Urban Debate League.  He also won “The Gary Fan Triumphant Tiger Award” from Southside HS in South Carolina for “noble and enduring strides towards diversity within the speech and debate community.”  He is a three-diamond Coach and has been a member of the National Forensic League since 1982, when he competed in policy debate, extemp and oratory.  Currently, Mario serves as District Chair of the Georgia Northern Mountain NFL District, President of the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association and a National Tournament official at NFL Nationals.  He has qualified over 120 students to NFL Nationals, and is the only coach in the country to have two finalists for NFL National Student of the Year, including to 2011 National Student of the Year.  He has coached 38 State Champions in a range of debate and speech events.

Lecturer

Director of Debate - Michigan State University

He received his MA in Communication from Wake Forest University in 2008 and BA in International Relations from Michigan State University in 2006, where he also won the National Debate Tournament as a member of MSU’s Debate Team. Before returning to MSU, Casey was the Associate Director of Debate at the University of Georgia and is originally from Holland, Michigan.

Lecturer

Director of Debate - University of West Georgia

Dr. Michael Hester is the Associate Dean of the Honors College at the University of West Georgia and has been the director of UWG Debate for 16 years. During his tenure, UWG Debate has won CEDA National championships twice (as well as reaching the finals and semifinals in other years), reached the semifinals, quarterfinals (3 times), and octafinals (4 times) of the NDT, and received 1st Round At-Large Bids to the NDT nine times. He coached the first African-American male to win a national championship, the first all-female team to win a national championship, the first team to win a national championship running a K, as well as the first teams to introduce arguments about gendered language into debate. He has worked at more than two dozen summer debate camps since 1989, including serving on the faculty of debate institutes at Arizona State, Bates, Berkeley, Emory, Gonzaga, and Michigan, as well as lecturing to the University of Kentucky Fellows. He is a proud Dawg fan, having received his MA in Speech Communication from UGA in 1995.

Director. GDI

Graduate Assistant Coach - UGA

Athena Murray is a debate coach and Ph.D. student in Rhetorical Studies. She completed her B.A. in Philosophy and Women’s Studies at Michigan State University in 2008. Athena debated for four years for Michigan State University, making it to the elimination rounds of several national tournaments. Athena received her M.A. in Communication Studies in 2010 from the University of Kansas where she helped coach the 2009 NDT Champions. She is also an assistant coach at Marist School in Atlanta. Athena also teaches Public Speaking to college students at UGA as well as gifted high school students through the Duke Talent Identification Program.

Athena has worked at debate institutes for the past 8 years including the Spartan Debate Institute and the Jayhawk Debate Institute, and now serves as Director of the GDI.

Dorm Director

Director of Speech & Debate - Marist School

Jeffrey Miller just finished his first year as Director of Speech & Debate at Marist School in Atlanta.  He teaches Advanced Logic & Debate and Mathematics courses at Marist.  Prior to Marist, he taught math and coached debate at his alma mater Fayette County High School.  During his six years of coaching debate, Jeffrey has coached six State Championships in five different events, including the 2012 Georgia Public Forum State Champions.  He is a diamond coach of the National Forensic League, and was named the 2012 GFCA Debate Coach of the Year.  Currently, Jeffrey serves as Secretary of the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association and has recently been elected GFCA President for 2012-2013.  He has coached 36 students to NFL and NCFL Nationals.  His policy teams this year have reached elimination rounds at several national tournaments and received a qualifying leg to the Tournament of Champions. 

Institute Director

Director of Debate - University of Georgia

Edward Panetta has been the director of the Georgia Debate Union for the last twenty-two years. During that period the University of Georgia has qualified forty teams for the National Debate Tournament (NDT). In the 1996-1997 season UGA became one of five debate programs in the sixty-two year history of the NDT to place two teams into the semi-finals (finalist and semi-finalist). Our 2003 team became the seventeenth team in the history of the NDT to compile a record of 8-0 in the preliminary rounds of the tournament. Our 2007 team was the 1st seed at the NDT and the winner of the Rex Copeland award. UGA debate has also been active in international debating during Panetta's tenure as director. Members of the Georgia Debate Union have been selected to represent the United States in Japan, Great Britain and Eastern Europe. Additionally, Dr. Panetta was selected to coach the U.S. team that visited Russia in 1997. In 2007, he was named the National Debate Coach of the Year.  Dr. Panetta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech Communication at UGA.