Class of 1995 | Parsons High School, Kansas Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School. Pintip’s novel, Forget Tomorrow, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. It is also a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, the MASL Truman Award, and the Tome Society It list. In addition, The Darkest Lie was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her books have been translated into four languages, and her other titles include Remember Yesterday, Seize Today, Girl on the Verge, and the upcoming Star-Crossed and Malice. She lives with her husband and children in Maryland.

Class of 2004 | Lewisville High School, Texas

Saeed Jones is a writer and poet whose debut collection, Prelude to Bruise, was named a 2014 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His second book, a memoir titled, How We Fight for Our Lives, won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2019. In 2023, Saeed’s book of poetry, Alive at the End of the World, won the Anisfield-Wolf Award for poetry.

Saeed previously worked for BuzzFeed as the founding LGBT editor and its executive culture editor. He is also one of the hosts of the podcast, Vibe Check.

Of his time in speech and debate, Saeed said, “In high school, my debate coach, Sally Squibb, who I’m still very close to, was a huge influence, and we spent so much time together. With speech you’re taking literature and bringing it to life and really begin to internalize, and certainly with poetry, with rhythm and sound and all of that, it ceases to just be something on the shelf. And that was an experience where I had someone saying “You’re good at this, you’re talented. This isn’t just average, and you need to keep working harder.” So along the way I felt like I kept having those kinds of mentors who would go, “You’re onto something, keep working harder.”

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Class of 2013 | Greenhill School, TX

Rebecca F. Kuang is a fantasy novelist, and has written numerous novels including The Poppy War, which was nominated for the 2019 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Her later releases include The Dragon Republic, The Burning God, Babel, and Yellowface. Babel debuted at the top spot on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2022.

Rebecca participated in Lincoln Douglas Debate in high school, winning the National Championship at the National Debate Coaches National Championships in 2013. Rebecca was also awarded the top individual speaker award in her division and the NDCA’s Marilee Dukes and Patricia Bailey Award earned by the Lincoln Douglas debater in the United States that accumulated the most success over the entire competitive season.

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Class of 1986 | The Bronx High School of Science, New York Min Jin Lee is a Korean American writer whose work frequently deals with Korean American topics. Her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was published in 2007. It was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year by The Times. In 2017, Lee released a novel entitled Pachinko, which is an epic historical novel following characters from Korea who eventually migrate to Japan. It is the first novel written for an adult English speaking audience about Japanese Korean culture. The book is on the “Best Fiction of 2017” lists from Esquire, Chicago Review of Books, and Amazon. Pachinko was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction. IN HER WORDS | “When I was growing up, I was silent. In high school, I decided to join the debate team to overcome my shyness, then after a year I took public speaking classes.” More »

Spring Woods High School, Texas Filmmaker Roberto Orci is a prolific writer and producer across both film and TV. Roberto is the billion dollar filmmaker behind some of the decade’s biggest films including Mission: Impossible III, Eagle Eye, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Cowboys and Aliens, and the Star Trek films. He also executive produced the hit romantic comedy The Proposal. His writing and producing credits have grossed more than $4 billion worldwide. Roberto competed in Policy Debate in high school. IN HIS WORDS | “I learned how to think at Spring Woods debate. I learned how to speak, how to find my voice, and how to be myself. Debate teachers are more than teachers.” More »

Class of 2008 | Grove High School, Michigan

Rachel Sussman is a Tony Award-winning producer, educator, and entrepreneur who co-founded The MITTEN Lab, an emerging artist residency program in Michigan, and The Business of Broadway, an organization dedicated to “pulling back the curtain” and democratizing the business of Broadway.

Rachel, as part of the producing group Runyonland Sussman, earned her first Tony Award for co-producing Parade. What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony nominated, Pulitzer finalist), The Woodsman (Obie Award), and The Old Man and the Pool are a few of her producing credits.

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Class of 1990 | Apple Valley High School, MN

Reuben Advani serves as CEO of The Global STEM Alliance, an initiative focused on increasing access to and improving the quality of STEM education. Advani has also authored, The Wall Street MBA and Financial Freedom and is requested as a publis speaker at corporate functions, law firms, and non-profits across the nation. He has also been featured in magazines including Investor’s Business Daily and U.S. News & World Report.

Class of 1987 | Milton Academy, Massachusetts Austan D. Goolsbee is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He previously served in Washington as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and a member of the President Obama’s cabinet. His research has earned him recognition as a Fulbright Scholar and an Alfred P. Sloan fellow. Goolsbee serves on the Economic Advisory Panel to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has previously served on the Panel of Economic Advisors to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Census Advisory Commission and as a special consultant for Internet Policy to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. As a high school student, Goolsbee won the NSDA national championship in International Extemporaneous Speaking (IX) in 1987. More »

Class of 1985 | Davenport West High School, IA

Sharon Krause is the owner and operator of Dalla Terra Ranch, an organically certified sheep ranch north of Earlham, IA. In 2022, Dalla Terra Ranch gifted 70 acres of the ranch to In Harmony Farm, a newly formed public not-for-profit, thus officially allowing In Harmony Farm to launch its work. Sharon is currently president and chairwoman of the In Harmony Farm board. In Harmony Farm is committed to focusing on environmental sustainability and regenerative agriculture, serving Iowans in need, and creating meaningful experiences for members of our community.

Class of 1951 | Beverly Hills High School, California Elinor Ostrom was an American political economist whose work was associated with the New Institutional Economics and the resurgence of political economy. In 2009, she shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Oliver E. Williamson for her “analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” To date, she remains the only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. After graduating with a B.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA, Ostrom lived in Bloomington, Indiana, and served on the faculty of Indiana University, with a late-career affiliation with Arizona State University. She was Distinguished Professor at Indiana University and the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, as well as a research professor and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University in Tempe. She was a lead researcher for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP), managed by Virginia Tech and funded by USAID. IN HER WORDS | “Since our home in Los Angeles was located at the lower edge of Beverly Hills, my mother arranged for me to attend Beverly Hills High School. Fortunately, I was encouraged to join the debate team in my junior year of high school and participated actively in speech competitions around the state. Learning debate was an important early impact on my ways of thinking. You are taught that there are always at least two sides to public policy questions, and you have to learn a good argument for both sides as well as knowing how to critique both sides.” More »

Class of 2009 | Hinsdale Central High School, Illinois Nandini Ramakrishnan is a Global Market Strategist in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Global Market Insights Strategy Team, based in London. She co-authors the Guide to the Markets and other key Market Insights publications relating to macroeconomic and market dynamics. She provides research-driven outlooks for retail and institutional clients based in the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Nandini speaks frequently on media outlets (BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Sky, CNN) and writes a weekly column for the Financial Times Adviser on various investment and macroeconomic topics. Nandini holds a degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and has previously worked in asset-backed debt securities structuring in the J.P. Morgan Investment Bank in the U.S. She has been named a Rising Star in We Are the City’s 2017 Investment Management category, an award sponsored by The Sunday Times, and named a 2017 Economic Analyst of the Year by Investment Week.

Class of 1990 | Bishop Canevin High School, Pennsylvania

KristieAnne Reed is a producer, executive, and the CEO of Bruckheimer Television. Reed has worked on a number of major franchises from the many CSI series to Netflix’s Lucifer, Disney+’s National Treasure, and CBS’ CSI:Vegas and The Amazing Race.

Before shifting to TV, Reed was Senior VP of Feature Films and worked on franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Remember the Titans.

Reed was inspired to pursue her theater interests by Rita Yunker, the forensics coach at Canevin High School. Reed said, “Yunker taught me so much about speech and communication — how to lose gracefully and how to win gracefully.”

Class of 2014 | Millard West High School, Nebraska Tayler W. Sundermann is a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studying mechanical engineering. He is most recognized for the creation of the national non-profit Put A Sock In It, which takes mismatched socks and redistributes them to those in need across the country. Additionally, he uses his for-profit business Activity Coins LLC to sponsor high performing young people into starting their own businesses, calling them Kid-Trepreneurs.

Class of 1975 | Harvard School, California B. Douglas Bernheim is the Chair of Stanford University’s Department of Economics, where he is also the Edward Ames Edmonds Professor of Economics. He has previously served as the Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics, and has held faculty positions at Princeton University and Northwestern University. His research has spanned a variety of fields, including public economics, behavioral economics, game theory, contract theory, industrial organization, political economy, and financial economics. His honors and awards include election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship. He is also a Partner of Bates White, LLC, one of the nation’s premier economic consulting firms, where he serves on the Board of Directors. He has testified as an economic expert in numerous high-profile lawsuits, where his speech and debate training has come in handy. The pinnacle of his speech and debate career was winning the 1976 College Freshman National Debate Championship at Northwestern.

Class of 1985 | Loyola High School, Minnesota John Bessler is an Associate Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and of counsel to the Minneapolis law firm of Berens & Miller, P.A. He previously taught a death penalty seminar at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he is currently a visiting scholar at the Human Rights Center. Professor Bessler has written eight books, including multiple books on the subject of capital punishment. The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition, published in 2017, was the recipient of the Bronze Medal in the World History category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Class of 1985 | Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School, Pennsylvania

Brian Domitrovic is an author and professor. In 1985, Domitrovic placed second in Congressional Debate at the National Tournament. Domitrovic earned his bachelor’s degree at Columbia University, studying history and mathematics. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, where he also did graduate work in the department of economics. Domitrovic is the Department Chair and Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. In his Forbes Magazine column “Past & Present,” he writes about how history can help illuminate the economic challenges we face today, and how very often historical sources do validate free-market economics. Domitrovic is the author of Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Movement and Restored American Prosperity (2014) and co-authored JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity (2016) with White House Economic Advisor Lawrence Kudlow.

Class of 1980 | Northwest High School, Tennessee Dr. Mike Edmonds is the Dean of Students and Vice President of Student life at Colorado College. He also serves as Chair of the Board at Memorial Hospital of South Bend and was previously the Assistant Dean of Students at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Edmonds began his forensic career as a seventh-grader in Clarksville, Tennessee, and majored in theater and speech at the University of Mississippi. He has been elected by the Barkley KEY Society, one of the nation’s most prestigious forensic educators honor societies, as an honorary KEY coach. Dr. Edmonds competed in Interp, Congressional Debate, and Extemp and returns to judge at the National Tournament every year. To learn more, check out this article published in the Winter 2017 issue of Rostrum magazine.

Class of 2007 | Palo Verde High School, Nevada Jessica Kurr is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. She also serves as an affiliate with the Penn State President’s Commission on LGBTQ Equity. She was the second editor for the volume Speech and Debate as Civic Education (Penn State Press, 2017), which received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Communication Association. She currently researches political rhetoric, specifically how debates unfold over economic, political, and LGBTQ issues. Her work has won awards and been supported by the American Society for the History of Rhetoric, the History of Economics Society, the University of Utah, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and the Volcker Alliance. She previously served as Director of Debate for the Penn State Speech & Debate Society, and she received her Ph.D. from Penn State, MA from Baylor University, and BSBA from the University of Pittsburgh. She competed in Policy Debate while in college and primarily competed in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and International Extemp while in high school.

Class of 2002 | Raymore-Peculiar High School, Missouri

Tiara Naputi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global & International Studies at the University of California Irvine. She is committed to Indigenous rights and decolonization throughout Oceania. Her research and publications address communication, militarism, and the environment with a primary focus on the Mariana Islands and Micronesia. She also examines the contemporary role of the United States military and global militarism and empire in relation to Indigenous issues. She has testified several times at the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) on the decolonization of Guåhan (Guam).

Tiara competed in both speech and debate events in high school in Peculiar, Missouri. She and her teammates were the Missouri Reader’s Theatre champions in 2001 and 2002. She graduated magna cum laude from Emporia State University with a B.A. in Communication and a B.A. in Spanish. While attending university, she competed in Policy Debate and participated in Spanish language debates at the Universidad Pública de Navarra (Pamplona, Spain).

Tiara earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication Studies with a graduate certificate in Native American & Indigenous Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. While completing these graduate degrees, she coached the UT-Austin Policy Debate team and coordinated a short-term grant project that fostered bilingual Policy Debate for Spanish/English speakers in Austin and Rio Grande Valley area high schools. She volunteered for the Urban Debate League and University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Texas and served as a volunteer translator and interpreter for immigration legal services serving immigrants and refugees throughout Central Texas.

Class of 1959 | Port Clinton High School, Ohio Robert David Putnam is an American political scientist and professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Putnam developed the influential two-level game theory that assumes international agreements will only be successfully brokered if they also result in domestic benefits. His most famous (and controversial) work, Bowling Alone, argues that the United States has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life (social capital) since the 1960s, with serious negative consequences. In 2010, he co-published an article in which he noted that the trend had moved the other way; he continued to advocate a push towards more social capital but he felt his famous thesis (“Americans are now bowling alone”) was no longer true. In March 2015, he published a book called Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis that looked at issues of inequality of opportunity in the U.S. More »

Class of 1959 | Brooklyn Preparatory School, New York John Edward Sexton is a lawyer and academic. From 1961 to 1975, Sexton coached the debate team at St. Brendan’s High School, a Catholic girls’ school in Brooklyn, New York, leading the team to five national championships and numerous invitational titles. He was named to the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame in 2003. Still an avid proponent of interscholastic debate, he is chairman of the board of Associated Leaders of Urban Debate (ALOUD), which seeks to bring debate activities to underserved communities in America’s urban areas. Sexton served as the 15th President of New York University, from 2002 to 2015. From 1988 to 2002, he served as Dean of the NYU School of Law, during which time NYU became one of the top five law schools in the country according to U.S. News and World Report. From 2003 to 2007, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; in 2006, he served as chair of the Federal Reserve System’s Council of Chairs. More »

Class of 2014 | Sumner Academy, Kansas Kalen Allen attends Temple University and majors in theater and film. He is well-known for his “Kalen Reacts” YouTube videos critiquing online recipes. After a visit to The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2017, Kalen was hired as creator at Ellentube. IN HIS WORDS | “The best part about competing in speech and debate was being able to tell the stories I wanted to tell. But it was the freedom of expression and creativity in performing those pieces on a competitive level that strengthened my artistry while providing discipline.”

Class of 1991 | The Westminster Schools, Georgia Brian Baumgartner is an actor best known for playing Kevin Malone in the American adaptation of The Office. His television roles include Jake in Progress, Arrested Development, and Everwood. He starred alongside Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and John Krasinski in License to Wed. In June 2007, Baumgartner won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Broadband Program – Comedy, for his work on The Office: The Accountants webisodes. Baumgartner placed fourth in Dramatic Interpretation at the 1991 National Tournament. Watch the performance » More »

Class of 2004 | Moorhead High School, Minnesota Preston Boyd has been a principal actor in two national Broadway tours: in Jersey Boys as Bob Gaudio and as The Monster in The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein. He has performed in regional theatre productions of Of Mice and Men, Les Miserables, Singin’ in the Rain, Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, Oliver, Peter Pan, and Aida. He performed in Working at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Preston is excited to play the role of Artie Green and join Glenn Close in the Broadway musical revival of Sunset Boulevard.

Class of 1982 | Lowell High School, CA

Benjamin Bratt is an actor and producer who is most known for playing Paco Aguilar in Blood In, Blood Out. He has also had supporting film roles in Demolition Man, Clear and Present Danger, and The River Wild. From 1995-1999, he starred as the NYPD Detective Rey Curtis on Law & Order.

In the 2000s, Bratt appeared in many films including Miss Congeniality (2000), Traffic (2000), Piñero (2001), Catwoman (2004), Trucker (2008), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Snitch (2013), and Coco (2017).

In high school, Benjamin joined the Lowell Forensic Society, one of the oldest high school speech and debate teams in the nation, founded in 1892.

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Class of 1997 | Sacramento City College, CA

Jessica Chastain is an actress known for her exceptional talent and versatile performances across film, television, and theater. Chastain made her breakthrough in 2011 with her role in “The Help,” earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Since then, her notable roles in critically acclaimed films include “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Interstellar,” and “Molly’s Game.” She has earned multiple award nominations, including two Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe win. Chastain is not only celebrated for her acting but also for her advocacy of gender equality and inclusion in Hollywood. She’s been a vocal supporter of women in the industry and has used her platform to address important social issues.

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Class of 1982 | The Porter-Gaud School, South Carolina Stephen Colbert is a comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014. The series became one of Comedy Central’s highest-rated series, earning Colbert an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2006. After ending The Colbert Report, he was hired in 2015 to succeed retiring David Letterman as host of The Late Show on CBS. Colbert has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Peabody Awards. Colbert was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2006 and 2012. His book, I Am America (And So Can You!), was #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2007. More »

Class of 1949 | Fairmount High School, Indiana James Dean was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). After his death, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. Dean placed sixth in Dramatic Interpretation at the 1949 National Tournament. More »

Class of 1967 | Speedway High School, Indiana Joyce DeWitt is an American actress. From 1977 to 1983, Dewitt played Janet Wood on the ABC sitcom Three’s Company, which tells the story of Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt), Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers), and Jack Tripper (John Ritter) who all platonically live together in an apartment. The show raked in record ratings, breaking barriers at the time as the highest-rated midseason show ever broadcast on network television. More »

Class of 1996 | Stuyvesant High School, New York Billy Eichner is an American comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is the star, executive producer, and creator of Funny Or Die’s Billy on the Street, a comedy game show that airs on truTV. Eichner was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Game Show Host” in 2013. He is also known for playing Craig Middlebrooks on the sitcom Parks and Recreation. Eichner currently stars in the Hulu original series Difficult People alongside Julie Klausner and is involved in the seventh season of American Horror Story, which premiered September 5, 2017. Eichner competed in speech events at Stuyvesant High School. More »

Class of 1999 | NSU University School, Florida Joshua Ilan Gad is an actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for voicing Olaf in Frozen, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, and starring as LeFou in the live-action musical film Beauty and the Beast. Gad attended NSU University School, graduating in 1999. While there, he won the NSDA national championship in Original Oratory in 1998, and for Humorous Interpretation and Original Oratory in 1999. IN HIS WORDS | In this video, Gad explains how speech and debate helped make his dreams come true. More »

Class of 2001 | Moorhead High School, Minnesota Becky Gulsvig is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Gulsvig’s first role was that of Wendy in a touring production of Peter Pan. She has performed on Broadway in Hairspray as Amber Von Tussle and originated the role of Leilani in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde the Musical, understudying the roles of Elle Woods, Serena, and Margot. She starred as Elle Woods in the North American national tour of Legally Blonde the Musical and was nominated for the 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production. Gulsvig performed the song “So Much Better” live at the 2009 Tony Awards ceremony. In 2015, Gulsvig played Cynthia Weil in the U.S. national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She returned to Broadway in 2010 as Patty in School of Rock. IN HER WORDS | “Speech played such a huge role in making me who I am today. On and off the stage I am a better person and performer because of the creativity and confidence that speech gave me. I am so thankful for Rebecca Meyer-Larson and my Moorhead Senior High School speech experience!” More »

Class of 2006 | Thornton Township High School, IL

LaRoyce Hawkins is an actor, stand-up comedian, spoken word artist, and musician. Hawkins stars on Chicago P.D., where he portrays Officer Kevin Atwater. Hawkins also has a regular role on the crossover show Chicago Fire. He has also made appearances in various television series, including Ballers, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Underemployed, and Detroit 1-8-7.

In 2005, Hawkins won the state speech championship for original comedy. As a senior, he again placed first in the state but in humorous duet acting along with his partner, Marketta Wilder.

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South Mecklenburg High School, North Carolina

John Hoogenakker is a stage, screen and commercial actor having played the Bud Light King in Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” television commercials, Lt. Spellman in Chicago Fire, Matice in Jack Ryan, Carl Wilkes in Castle Rock, and Randy Ramseyer in Dopesick. Most recently John played Clive Doyle in the TV mini-series, Waco: The Aftermath.

In high school, John competed at two National Tournaments, 1994 in Kansas City, MO and 1995 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. His former classmate, Monica Williams, said he was best known on the debate team for humorous interpretations that bordered on stand-up comedy. “He could mimic someone just a minute after they walked away,” she recalls. “He took it seriously, too. It wasn’t a hobby or a habit. He loved performing.”

Check out Brian Baumgartner’s “Off the Beat” podcast with special guest John Hoogenakker »

Read more about John’s experience in HI »

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Class of 1989 | Trinity High School, TX

Chuck Huber is a voice actor who has provided numerous voices for Japanese anime series and video games. He is best known for his roles as Hiei in Yu Yu Hakusho, Dr. Franken Stein in Soul Eater, Pilaf in Dragon Ball, Shou Tucker in Fullmetal Alchemist, Android #17 in Dragon Ball Z, and Turner Grey in Ace Attorney.

Huber has also been a TV, film and stage actor for over 20 years, most notably at Chicago’s Steppenwolf and Goodman Theaters; as the Director/Writer of Arbor Day – The Musical; as a producer, co-writer and co-star of the bilingual feature Fragility of Seconds, which took the top prize at the Houston International Film Festival; and in guest starring roles on NBC, FOX, CBS dramas.

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Class of 1988 | Apply Valley HS, Minnesotta

Erik Jensen is an actor, playwright, screenwriter, documentarian, and director. His most recent work includes playing Dez O’Reilly in For Life, Thurman Munson in the ESPN miniseries, The Bronx is Burning, and Dr. Stephen Edwards on The Walking Dead. 

Erik has written and co-written a number of plays including The Exonerated, Aftermath, Almost Home, How to Be A Rock Critic, and Coal Country. The Exonerated, a play based on interviews with more than 40 exonerated death row inmates, ran for more than 600 performances off-Broadway, toured nationally, was adapated as a movie for Court TV, and won a number of awards.

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Henry County High School, Tennessee Cherry Jones is a five-time Tony Award nominee for her work on Broadway. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1995 revival of The Heiress and for the 2005 original production of Doubt. She won the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Allison Taylor on the FOX television series 24. She has also won three Drama Desk Awards. Cherry Jones became the first out lesbian to win a Tony Award when she was chosen as Best Actress in 1995. She was a national runner up in Dramatic Interpretation at the National Tournament. Cherry Jones was coached by legendary Hall of Fame coach Ruby Krider, who helped her get into the acting program at Carnegie Melon University. More »

KOA, the artist formerly known as Daniel Beaty, is a visionary actor, singer, writer, and social entrepreneur who lives at the intersection of art, spirit, and social change. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, KOA grew up the child of a heroin addicted, incarcerated father, and younger sibling to a brother addicted to crack cocaine. KOA learned early on that the arts can help heal childhood trauma, transform pain into power, and inspire a new generation of change makers to dismantle the systemic racism and oppression at the core of the challenges KOA, his father, brother, and so many Americans face.

KOA has spent his life telling stories that share both the truth of who we are as people and his hope for a better world. He believes these stories have the power to move us and inspire us, as individuals and as a society, to transform ourselves and the world: to confront our pain, imagine a better world, and work together to achieve it. KOA has developed an awarding winning body of work that includes his plays Through the Night, Emergency, Mr. Joy, and The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Paul Robeson. These works have been performed at venues ranging from maximum security prisons to The Public Theater, Lincoln Center and White House. He has garnered numerous awards including an Obie award for writing and performance and five NAACP Theater Awards. A highly requested performer and keynote speaker, KOA has worked throughout the U.S., Europe, and Africa. In these turbulent times of social change facing the nation, KOA has continued to develop work that confronts, heals and nurtures us all.

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KOA is the 2021 Spokesperson for National Speech & Debate Education Day! Learn more »

Class of 1963 | Princeton High School, NJ

John Lithgow is an actor best known for starring as Dick Solomon in the television sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. He also acted as Arthur Mitchell in the drama Dexter, Winston Churchill in the Netflix series The Crown. He also starred in HBO’s Perry Mason and FX’s The Old Man.

He has been the recipient of numerous accolades including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Tony Awards. He has received nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards. 

In his memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education, he wrote, “In tenth grade, the following  year, I dusted off Twelfth Night once again. I performed it as a monologue in the category of “Humorous Declamation,” for Buchtel High’s National Forensic League team. On Saturday’s I would travel with a busload of brainy debaters to tournaments held in empty high schools all over north-central Ohio. The others would debate and I would perform, competing with teams  from all over the region.”

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• Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lithgow

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Westbury High School, TX

Brian McBride was a musician best known as one half of the duo Stars of the Lid. He also released two solo albums, When The Detail Lost Its Freedom and The Effective Disconnect. Both McBride and band mate Wiltzie were stunned to see Stars of the Lid audiences grow, both in size and diversity, in the 2000s. Many of their records are now recognized as some of the best ambient albums of all time.

McBride was also an active member of the policy debate community, directing the University of Texas National Institute of Forensics’ high school debate camp. He also coached Northwestern University to win three NDTs, the University of Redlands to reach the NDT quarterfinals twice, and the University of Southern California to various wins for more than a decade.

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Syosset High School, New York Idina Menzel rose to prominence when she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent. Her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1996. She reprised the role in the musical’s 2005 film adaptation. In 2003, Menzel originated the role of Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked, a performance for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the 2014 musical If/Then, which earned her a third Tony Award nomination. Additionally, Menzel is known for being the voice of Queen Elsa in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ hit 2013 musical film Frozen, in which she sang the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning song “Let It Go.” The song reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Menzel the first Tony Award-winning actress to reach the top 10. More »

Class of 1991 | Dickson County High School, Tennessee

Anson Mount is perhaps best known for portraying protagonist Cullen Bohannon on AMC’s Hell on Wheels and Jim Steele on Conviction. He has also starred as Black Bolt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and as Captain Christopher Pike in the Star Trek series Discovery, Short Treks, and Strange New Worlds.

His podcast The Well features interviews with innovators and creators about how they think outside the box.

Anson placed among the top 40 contestants in Dramatic Interpretation at the 1991 National Tournament.

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Class of 2000 | James Madison High School, TX

Jared Padalecki is an actor best known for his TV roles in Supernatural and Walker. He grew up in Texas and rose to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in films such as New York Minute, House of Wax, and Friday the 13th.

Padalecki and his partner were national champions in Duo Interpretation at the 1998 National Tournament. Check out his performance »

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Class of 1995 | Freehold Township High School, New Jersey Kalpen Suresh Modi is an American actor, comedian, producer, and former civil servant best known by his stage name Kal Penn. As an actor, he is known for his role portraying Lawrence Kutner on the television program House as well as the character Kumar Patel in the Harold & Kumar film series. He is also recognized for his performance in the critically acclaimed film The Namesake. Penn has taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturer. In April 2009, Penn joined the Obama administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.Penn resigned his post as Barack Obama’s Associate Director of Public Engagement on June 1, 2010, for a brief return to his acting career. He filmed the third installment of the Harold & Kumar series and subsequently returned to the White House Office of Public Engagement as an Associate Director. In July 2011, he again left the White House to accept a role in the hit television series How I Met Your Mother. Currently, he stars in the role of Seth Wright in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor and serves as the current host of the new game show Superhuman. More »

Class of 1982 | Kickapoo High School, Missouri William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and producer. He has received multiple awards and nominations including an Academy Award as producer under his own company Plan B Entertainment. Pitt is best known for his performances in Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven, Troy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and The Big Short. More »

Class of 1989 | Wenatchee High School, WA

Heidi Schreck is a playwright, screenwriter, and actress. Her play, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” which she also performs in, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards for 2019 Best Play and Best Actress in a Play. Heidi’s play is partially autobiographical, relating her real-life experience in participating in speech and debate as a teenager. The play was picked up as a movie for streaming by Amazon in 2020.

In a comment about her play, Heidi said, “I would say those things, like my dad’s love of history, my mom’s love of theater, my great debate coach at high school, all shaped [me into] the artist I became [and] the writer,” Schreck said. “They certainly had a huge effect on the making of this play, which is about being a teenage girl in Wenatchee doing debate.”

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Class of 1984 | Scranton Central High School, Pennsylvania Katy Selverstone is an American actress. She is primarily known for her work on The Drew Carey Show as Lisa Robbins, Drew Carey’s girlfriend. More recently, she worked on higher profile shows (such as NYPD Blue, CSI, and CSI: Miami) and movies (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood). She is also known for her work on the stage, featuring in the original Broadway cast of The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. More »

Class of 2000 | Milton Academy, Massachusetts

Jenny Slate is an actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She is best known as a cast member on SNL from 2009-2010, followed by roles in Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation, House of Lies, and Kroll Show. She also co-created, wrote, and produced the children’s short film and book series Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2010–present). Most recently, she appeared in the science-fiction film Everything Everywhere All at Once, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

About her time in speech and debate, Jenny said, “When I was a senior in high school, my biggest achievement shifted from being a speech team champion to being on the French kissing market after years of not being even allowed in the marketplace. And when it came time for me to go to the national speech and debate championship and fight for my speech team’s place in our world, I chose instead to skip it and try to kiss this guy Travis.”

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Houston-Bellaire High School, Texas Brent Spiner is an American actor, comedian, and singer best known for his portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four subsequent films. In 1997, he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact, and was nominated in the same category for portraying Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day, a role he reprised in Independence Day: Resurgence. He has also enjoyed a career in the theatre and as a musician. In 1967, Spiner was the national champion in Dramatic Interpretation, competing under the name Brent Mintz. More »

Class of 1994 | Shawnee Mission West High School, KS

Jason Sudeikis is an actor, comedian, writer, and producer who began his career in improv and found fame as a cast member on Saturday NIght Live from 2005 to 2013. More recently, Jason co-created and starred as the lead in Ted Lasso earning him Emmy’s for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, two Golden Globes for Best Actor in a TV Comedy Series, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.

Sudeikis has also had the lead role in many feature films including Horrible Bosses (1 & 2), We’re the Millers, Downsizing, and more.

Fun Fact: Both Jason and Paud Rudd participated in speech and debate at Shawnee Mission West High School and were coached by Sally Shipley.

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Class of 1994 | Apple Valley High School, Minnesota Paper magazine named Maria Thayer one of the “Eight Women in Comedy that are Going to Take Over the World.” Maria received her television break in Strangers With Candy. She currently stars in the series Those Who Can’t. She also starred in the Adult Swim series Eagleheart. Her other television work includes roles in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mindy Project, Review, Portlandia, Married, Difficult People, Man Seeking Woman, The League, Kroll Show, New Girl, Maron, Cougar Town, Arrested Development, and Gotham. Her film credits include Night of The Living Deb, Fox Searchlight’s Table 19, State of Play, Steve Pink’s Accepted, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Todd Solondz’s Storytelling, and the independent Let Go. Thayer is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She lives in Los Angeles. More »

Justin F. Kimball High School, Texas Stephen Harold Tobolowsky is a character actor, author, and musician. Tobolowsky has appeared in more than 200 films plus many television projects. He is known for film roles such as annoying insurance agent Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day and amnesiac Sammy Jankis in Christopher Nolan’s Memento, as well as such television characters as Commissioner Hugo Jarry (Deadwood), Bob Bishop (Heroes), Sandy Ryerson (Glee), Stu Beggs (Californication), and Action Jack Barker (Silicon Valley). More » Watch Stephen speak about celebrating National Speech and Debate Education Day!

Class of 1998 | Plano Senior High School, Texas

Michael Urie has performed on both the screen and the stage as an actor, producer, director, and host. Urie is best known for his role as Marc St. James on Ugly Betty. He has also starred on Broadway in the Tony nominated revival of Torch Song and more recently as William Shakespeare in Jane Anger. He also stars as Brian in the Apple+ television series, Shrinking with Jason Segel and Harrison Ford released in Jan. 2023.

Urie won the national championship in Dramatic Interpretation at the 1998 National Tournament. Watch his performance, “Confessions of a Nightingale” »

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• Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Urie

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Class of 1971 | East Nashville High School, Tennessee Oprah Winfrey is a media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, publisher, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Dubbed the “Queen of All Media,” she has been ranked the richest African American and the greatest Black philanthropist in American history. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. IN HER WORDS | “Forensics gives you a sense of confidence in speaking in front of people, a sense of presence, and a sense of pride. It’s about the power of words to influence ideas, to uncover a higher truth, to change minds, and for a lot of people, even to change lives.” More »

Class of 1978 | Lincoln High School, California Bradley Darryl “BD” Wong made his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly. He is the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theater World Award for the same performance. He is now starring in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures. More »

Class of 1991 |Avondale High School, GA

Stacey Abrams is a politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and an author. She served as the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2011-2017 and has been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. Stacey has authored eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction, and was nominated for an Emmy for her voice-over work in a special episode of Black-ish.

Stacey was hired as the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University in 2023.

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Alexander Ramsey High School, Minnesota

Rebecca Blank was an economist and worked as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2013-2022. Blank served as United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce when she was named to lead the United States Department of Commerce as Acting Secretary in 2012.

A native of Missouri, Blank is a summa cum laude graduate in economics from the University of Minnesota and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Blank was the national champion in Girls’ Extemporaneous Speaking in 1973, a fact that was included in her nomination to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce.

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Class of 2006 | Carrollton School Of The Sacred Heart, Florida Yvanna Cancela is the first Latina state senator in Nevada and serves as the Executive Director of the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project, which helps individuals apply to become a citizen free of charge. Previously, she was the political director of Nevada’s largest immigrant organization, the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas. In high school, Yvanna competed in Policy Debate at Carrollton School Of The Sacred Heart. More »

Thomas Jefferson High School, Texas Joaquín Castro is an American Democratic politician who has served in the United States House of Representatives for Texas’s 20th congressional district since 2013. The district includes just over half of his native San Antonio, Texas, as well as some of its nearby suburbs. Joaquín graduated with honors from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and communications and earned a Juris Doctor with his twin brother at Harvard Law School. From 2003 to 2013, Castro was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 125. While in the Texas state legislature, Castro served as vice-chair of the Higher Education Committee and was a member of the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee. More »

Class of 1940 | Oklahoma City-Classen High School, Oklahoma William James Crowe Jr. was a United States Navy admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In 1993, President Clinton named Crowe chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Then in 1994, President Clinton appointed Crowe the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He served in that capacity until 1997. Following his retirement from the Navy, Crowe was awarded a 2000 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. IN HIS WORDS | “Debate was the single most important activity I participated in at the Naval Academy.” More »

Class of 1980 | Bozeman High School, Montana Steve Daines is a United States Senator from Montana. He previously was the U.S. Representative for Montana’s at-large congressional district from 2013 to 2015. In the 2014 midterm election, he won an open seat, defeating Democrat Amanda Curtis. Prior to his career in public office, Daines spent 13 years with Procter & Gamble, where he helped expand their business to Hong Kong and China. More »

Fullerton High School, California Viet Dinh is a lawyer and a conservative legal scholar who served as an Assistant Attorney General of the United States from 2001 to 2003, under the presidency of George W. Bush. Born in Saigon, in the former South Vietnam, he was the chief architect of the USA PATRIOT Act and is a former member of the Board of Directors of News Corporation. More »

Class of 1971 | Joseph A. Craig High School, Wisconsin Russ Feingold is an American lawyer and politician from Wisconsin. He served as a democratic member of the U.S. Senate from 1993-2011. During his time in the U.S. Senate, Feingold gained a reputation as a political maverick with an independent streak. Previously, he was a Wisconsin State Senator in the 27th district. Feingold received the John F. Kennedy Profit in Courage Award for cosponsoring the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which is a piece of campaign finance reform legislation. In 2013, he was selected by Secretary of State John Kerry to serve as a special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa. More »

Class of 2000 | North Miami Beach Senior High School, Florida

Thamar E. Harrigan is the Chief of Staff and White House Liaison of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, a U.S. government agency that helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies. USTDA links U.S. businesses to export opportunities by funding project preparation and partnership building activities that develop sustainable infrastructure and foster economic growth in partner countries.
Prior to joining USTDA, Ms. Harrigan served as an international trade attorney, most recently through her own international trade and consulting firm. During the Obama Administration, she was the Senior Advisor for Intergovernmental Relations in the office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and in that capacity, helped to manage implementation of HUD’s policies, programs and initiatives, while shaping the agency’s interactions with state, local, and tribal governments. 

Ms. Harrigan is a co-founder and served as legal counsel of the Haitian Ladies Network, the largest global platform connecting more than 75,000 women and girls of Haitian descent from across the U.S., Haiti, and around the world. She has served as Vice President of Government Relations and Sponsorship for the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT).  She was the Secretary General for 2020 G7 Youth Summit for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP) and served as the organization’s Director of Youth Summits.

Ms. Harrigan holds a JD degree from St. Thomas University School of Law, and a LLM in International Business Law degree from the National University of Singapore in a joint program with East China University of Political Science and Law.  She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Florida.  Ms. Harrigan is a licensed attorney in the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Class of  1997 | Greenhill School, Texas

Rashad Hussain is an attorney, diplomat, and professor, who currently serves as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. He previously served as associate White House counsel, as U.S. Special Envoy of President Barack Obama to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the U.S. Special Envoy for strategic counterterrorism communications. Hussain has also served on the United States National Security Council and in the Department of Justice as a trial attorney and a criminal and national security prosecutor.

Rashad was a member of Greenhill High School’s nationally recognized policy-debate team, partnering with Josh Goldberg, to win the Texas state debate championship and a number of national competitions.

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Class of 1981 | Bozeman High School, Montana Dr. Michael McFaul is an American academic who served as the United States Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. Prior to his nomination to the ambassadorial position, McFaul worked for the U.S. National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs. After his tenure as ambassador in Moscow, McFaul returned to Stanford University as a professor of political science. In high school debate, McFaul advocated for a repeal of the Jackson–Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act to increase trade between the Soviet Union and America. Thirty years later, McFaul was part of the team that accomplished that goal. More »

Coral Gables High School, Florida Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11, 1993. She was the first woman to serve as Attorney General and the second-longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history, after William Wirt. Reno was born and raised in Miami, Florida, and attended Coral Gables High School. After leaving to attend Cornell University and Harvard Law School, she returned to Miami where she started her career at private law firms. Her first foray into government was as a staff member for the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House of Representatives. She then worked for the Dade County State Attorney’s Office before returning to private practice. She was elected to the Office of State Attorney five times. More »

Class of 1994 | Southwest High School, MN

Jake Sullivan is an American political advisor who currently serves as the United States National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden. He was previously Director of Policy to President Barack Obama, National Security Advisor to then Vice President Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and Senior Policy Advisor to Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School.

In high school, Jake was a Coca-Cola Scholar, debate champion, president of the student council, and voted “most likely to succeed” in his class. He went on to earn a Truman Scholarship as a junior at Yale University and competed with the Yale Debate Association.

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• Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Sullivan

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Class of 1966 | Northwest Classen High School, Oklahoma Elizabeth Ann Warren is an academic and politician. She is senior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Warren was formerly a professor of law and taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and most recently at Harvard Law School. A prominent scholar specializing in bankruptcy law, Warren was among the most cited in the field of commercial law before starting her political career. Warren is a leading figure in the Democratic Party and is popular among American progressives. IN HER WORDS | In this video, Warren explains how her experience with speech and debate taught her valuable skills. More »

Class of 1968 | Trenton Hamilton East High School, New Jersey Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1975, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He was nominated to the Court by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006. Alito is considered one of the most conservative justices on the Court and has described himself as a “practical originalist.” Alito’s majority opinions in landmark cases include McDonald v. Chicago and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. More » IN HIS WORDS | Read this letter written by Justice Alito about his time in debate, courtesy of Tara L. Tate.

Class of 1986 | Ranney School, New Jersey Preet Bharara is a lawyer, podcast host, and author. He served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, earning a reputation of a “crusader” prosecutor. Under his leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York prosecuted nearly 100 Wall Street executives for insider trading and other offenses. In 2019, he released a book entitled Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law. More »

Class of 2002 | St. Mark’s School of Texas, Texas Josh Branson is a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC. Josh specializes in complex civil litigation, with particular experience in securities, antitrust, telecommunications, and anti-terrorism cases. While at the firm, he has delivered oral argument in multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals and has represented clients throughout all phases of district-court and appellate litigation. Prior to joining Kellogg Hansen, Josh served as a law clerk to the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was a research assistant to legendary debater Professor Laurence Tribe. Josh was a national champion debater in both high school and college. In high school, he won the 2002 National Forensic League (now NSDA) national championship in Policy Debate. In 2005, debating for Northwestern University, he won the National Debate Tournament. In 2006, he was named top speaker of the National Debate Tournament and set what was then a record for the highest speaker points awarded in the history of that tournament.

Class of 1955 | San Francisco-Lowell High School, California Stephen G. Breyer is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Breyer received an A.B. from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. President Clinton nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat August 3, 1994. Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court. Breyer has extensive experience in administrative law and is the Court’s leading purposivist—considering, determining, and interpreting the purpose of a statute paramount. More » IN HIS WORDS | Read this letter written by Justice Breyer about his time in debate, courtesy of Tara L. Tate.

Class of 1972 | Maine Township East High School, Illinois Robert J. Feldhake is the President of The Feldhake Law Firm, APC. He specializes in civil litigation, insurance, public agency representation, business dispute resolution, and alternative dispute resolution. In 2015, he received the Martindale Hubbell Top-Rated Lawyer Award. He has also received the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating every year since 2013. Robert won the Illinois State Debate Championship in 1972 for Maine Township East High School. As a collegiate debater for Augustana College, he was the top speaker of the National Debate Tournament.

Class of 1979 | Thomas Jefferson High School, TX

David Frederick is an appellate attorney and is a partner with Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, P.L.L.C. Frederick has argued more than 100 appeals, including 50 in the U.S. Supreme Court, and appeared in every federal court of appeals. Frederick has represented clients across the broadest possible spectrum, including individuals, labor unions, large and small corporations, states, the United States, and foreign governments.

When he graduated from high school, he was the all-time point leader in the history of the National Forensic League, the predecessor to the NSDA. Coached by legendary NSDA Hall of Fame coach Lanny Naegelin, Frederick was second at the National Speech Tournament in Original Oratory in 1977 and second at Nationals in Boys’ Extemp in 1979. His team at Jefferson High School won the national team championship in 1979.

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Class of 1996 | Greenhill School, Texas

Lindsay Harrison is a Managing Partner at Jenner & Block in the Washington D.C. office. Her personal practice spans a range of industries with a special focus on hospitality and real estate companies, colleges and universities, technology and media companies and nonprofit organizations. Lindsay is also a member of the Appellate & Supreme Court Practice, and regularly represents individuals in high-profile cases implicating human and constitutional rights.

Lindsay has argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and federal Courts of Appeals, and has led lawsuits against or involving the government. She led the Jenner & Block team that won a major victory preserving the DACA program in the U.S. Supreme Court after the government in 2017 attempted to rescind the program. 

Lindsay’s advice to speech and debate students wanting to pursue a career in law, “To me, reading prolifically and writing clearly and efficiently are the two best things you can do to become a really skilled lawyer.”

Check out Lindsay’s full Rostrum article » Speak Your Truth and Love What You Do

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Class of 2003 | The Harker School, California Alex Iftimie is an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he has served in various roles including Counselor to the Attorney General, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Prior to joining DOJ, he clerked for the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Alex completed his J.D. at Yale Law School. He received his B.A. in international relations at the University of Southern California, graduating summa cum laude with election to Phi Beta Kappa. At Yale, he was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of International Law and worked in the Civil Liberties and National Security Clinic. During his law school summers, Alex worked at the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice. He is a recipient of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project. Born in Romania, he came to the United States when he was 12, following the Romanian revolution. He is a naturalized citizen and his family resides in southern California.

Class of 1990 | Jesuit High School, Florida Jeff Joseph is a graduate of the University of Denver, College of Law. He is on the advisory council of the Federal Bar Association Immigration Law Section and is Vice President of the Colorado Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. Mr. Joseph currently serves on the national liaison committee between U.S. Citizenship and the United States Department of Labor. In 2004, he received the Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Mr. Joseph was named Immigration Lawyer of the Year in the USA in 2016 from Corporate LiveWire. Joseph Law Firm, P.C. has also been ranked as a Tier 1 law firm in the field of Immigration Law by U.S. News and World Reports. Mr. Joseph has represented clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. District Courts, and the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and has published several opinions in those courts. He is an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He currently serves as Secretary of the Joseph Family Foundation and as assistant debate coach for Kent Denver High School.

Class of 1987 | Loyola Academy, Illinois Neal Kumar Katyal is a partner at Hogan Lovells, the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a former Acting Solicitor General for the United States. In 2017, he presented his 35th Supreme Court argument, breaking Thurgood Marshall’s 50-year-old record to become the minority lawyer with the most oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as Vice President Al Gore’s co-counsel in Bush v. Gore 2000. He was lead counsel for the Guantanamo Bay detainees in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld 2006. The U.S. Justice Department bestowed its highest honor for a civilian to him, the Edmund Randolph Award. He was a successful high school debater for Loyola Academy (IL) and Dartmouth College (NH).

Class of 1994 | Caddo Parish Magnet High School, Louisiana Grace Mead is a complex commercial litigator and shareholder at Stearns Weaver Miller in Miami, Florida. Grace attended Dartmouth College, where she continued to compete in debate. She later graduated with High Honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. She then clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and was an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Since, at Stearns Weaver, from 2007 to 2017, she represented BBX Capital Corporation and its Chairman and CEO Alan Levan, which owned the 100-branch Florida bank BankAtlantic in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and then enforcement action alleging BBX had concealed loan risks. A six-week jury trial and split verdict in 2014, a successful appeal to the Eleventh Circuit in 2016, and a second six-week jury trial in 2017 resulted in a verdict and judgment for BBX and Mr. Levan rejecting every claim asserted by the SEC. She currently represents Florida pubic college and university donors, recent graduates, and proposed classes of donors, students, and recent graduates in a lawsuit to compel payment of more than $1 billion owed to Florida’s public colleges, universities, and their students. More »

Class of 1993 | Lincoln Park Academy High School, Florida

Melissa Murray is an academic and legal scholar and the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University. Following law school, Melissa clerked for Sonia Sotomayor and Stafan R. Underhill. She was the only African American clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Prior to her tenure at NYU, Murray taught at UC Berkeley where she was appointed faculty director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, the United States’ first law school think tank to focus on reproductive rights and justice issues.

Since 2019, Murray has co-hosted the podcast Strict Scrutiny, which focuses on SCOTUS and its legal culture. 

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Class of 1977 | Corona del Mar High School, California David Alan Sklansky is the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where he teaches and writes about criminal law, criminal procedure, and the law of evidence, and serves as a faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Biophysics in 1981 and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984. He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. After practicing labor law at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, D.C., he spent seven years as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and then taught law at UCLA and U.C. Berkeley. He joined the Stanford faculty in 2014. He was a member of the speech and debate team at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, California. During college, he taught at the Golden West Forensic Institute at the University of Redlands and was an assistant debate coach at John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, California. More »

Class of 1972 | Cardinal Spellman High School, New York Sonia Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic heritage, the first Latina, its third female justice, and its twelfth Roman Catholic justice. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal. Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New Yorkby President George H. W. Bush in 1991; confirmation followed in 1992. In 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice David Souter. More » Download this poster featuring Sonia Sotomayor in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month!

Class of 2002 | St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Florida Kevin Allocca is an author and technology professional and is currently the Head of Culture & Trends at YouTube, where he tracks popular video phenomena and manages trending content initiatives. He is YouTube’s expert on the intersection of web video and global culture, and is often cited in the press on subjects of virality, popularity, and breaking news. His TED Talk on “Why Videos Go Viral” has been watched more than two million times, and he has been a keynote speaker at festivals and industry events all over the world. His book Videocracy, which explores YouTube’s most interesting trends and the impact of video on our culture, was published by Bloomsbury in January 2018. He is an alumnus of Boston College and lives and works in New York City.

Class of 1992 | Greendale High School, Wisconsin Michael is the founder and CEO of Fusion PPT, one of the fastest growing technology firms in the country and a best place to work in the Washington, D.C. area. Prior to founding Fusion PPT, Michael was with Booz Allen Hamilton and served on the academic staff of the University of Wisconsin Law School. As one of the industry’s leading Information Technology experts, Michael has assisted some of the largest organizations across the globe utilize IT to increase efficiency, reduce infrastructure costs, and scale to meet customer needs. Michael has been a contributing technology editor and author at InformationWeek and Network Computing magazines with more than 60 published articles, and is the author of the book Federal Cloud Computing. Michael earned a Master’s of Science in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Afro-American History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Sharon Sharko Debate Foundation, which supports supplemental funding to public high school debate organizations. IN HIS WORDS | “Debate is a critical life skill that not only enables you to communicate well but also helps you think through and analyze complex problems. It is a skill that everyone can learn with hard work and dedication.”

Class of 1971 | Morristown High School, NJ

Craig Newmark is an internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companies such as IBM, Bank of America, and Charles Schwab. Newmark served as Chief Executive Officer of Craigslist from its founding until 2000. 

In 2015, Newmark founded Craig Newmark Philanthropies by which he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to address cybersecurity, misinformation, journalism, combating harassment of journalists, and food security. He has been known to say, “As a nerd, I don’t know why I need a billion dollars.”

In 2005, Time magazine listed Newmark as one of the 100 people shaping the world.

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• Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Newmark

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Class of 1987 | Aberdeen Central High School, South Dakota Michael Reszler is the Chief Digital Officer and Sr. Vice President of Strategy and Experimentation at American Public Media Group. Mike has been involved with the creation of the digital news industry since 1996. In that time, he won numerous awards and been involved with and overseen projects that won the Pulitzer, Emmy, and Edward R. Murrow Excellence Award to name a few. He has published and spoken widely on the intersection technology, audiences, and journalism. He was the former Director of Digital News for Knight Ridder where he helped to coordinate the digital newsrooms of 50 different news operations across the country. He hold a Master’s Degree and is A.B.D. from the Claremont Graduate School, where he was a Mellow Scholar and Fellow. For Mike, the single most important educational experience of his life was high school speech and debate.

Class of 1999 | Des Moines Roosevelt High School, Iowa

Ben Silbermann is an internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and Executive Chair of Pinterest, a virtual pinboard that lets users organize images, links, recipes, and other items. The website allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections called ‘pinboards.’ Examples include events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections, and/or ‘like’ photos. Silberman competed in both speech and debate and attended the National Tournament.

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