Rodrigo Paramo is the Director of Lincoln Douglas at VBI. He has been coaching high school debate for over a decade and joined the Greenhill coaching staff as a full-time classroom teacher in 2022. In his time as a coach, Rodrigo has coached multiple state champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate, and his students have consistently championed or competed in late elimination rounds at major high school debate tournaments. In his first year working with the Greenhill debate team, one of his students won the Dukes & Bailey Cup for Season-Long Excellence, awarded to the highest-performing high school debater over the course of a debate season. Rodrigo believes deeply in the power of debate to challenge the way students think about the world, inculcate critical thinking skills that extend far past any individual debate round, and to build life-long friendships.

Chris Theis is the Executive Director of VBI, and of one of the most accomplished coaches and competitors in the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Currently coaching at The Marlborough School in California, Chris has also coached at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (CA), Lexington High School (MA), Apple Valley High School (MN), and Trinity Preparatory School (FL).

As a coach, Chris's students have consistently advanced to elimination rounds at the Tournament of Champions, the National Debate Coaches Association National Tournament, and the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament.

His students have won nearly every major invitational tournament—many of them multiple times—including the Tournament of Champions, the NDCA National Tournament, Harvard, Berkeley, Greenhill, St. Mark’s, Apple Valley, Emory, Blake, Stanford, CPS, Lexington, Loyola, Damus, Golden Desert, Alta, the Greenhill Round Robin, the MBA Round Robin, and more.

As a competitor, Chris is one of only three juniors to ever win the Tournament of Champions and remains the only person to have won it twice. He was the champion of tournaments including Blake, Emory, the Iowa Round Robin (twice), the Greenhill Round Robin (twice), and St. Marks (twice). Additionally, Chris was a semifinalist at Greenhill and the Glenbrooks, as well as a finalist at Berkeley. He was a four-time qualifier to the NSDA National Tournament in Lincoln-Douglas, U.S. Extemp Speaking, and Congressional Debate.

Chris currently serves on the Tournament of Champions Lincoln-Douglas Committee and the National Speech Association Lincoln-Douglas Wording Committee. He has also been a member of the National Debate Coaches Association’s Executive Committee.

As a coach, his students have consistently reached elimination rounds at the Tournament of Champions, and have placed in the top 6 of the NSDA National Tournament. His students have won nearly every major invitational tournament (some multiple times) including: Harvard, Berkeley, Greenhill, St. Mark’s, the Minneapple, Emory, Stanford, CPS, Lexington, Loyola, Damus, Golden Desert, Alta, the Greenhill Round Robin, and others.

As a competitor, he was one of only three juniors to ever win the Tournament of Champions and is the only person to win the tournament twice. He was the champion of Blake, Emory, the Iowa Round Robin twice, the Greenhill Round Robin twice, and St. Marks twice. Chris was also a semi finalist at Greenhill and the Glenbrooks, and a finalist at Berkeley. Chris was a four year qualifier to the NSDA National Tournament in Lincoln-Douglas, U.S. Extemp Speaking, and Congressional Debate.

As a coach, his students have consistently reached elimination rounds at the Tournament of Champions, and have placed in the top 6 of the NSDA National Tournament. His students have won nearly every major invitational tournament (some multiple times) including: Harvard, Berkeley, Greenhill, St. Mark’s, the Minneapple, Emory, Stanford, CPS, Lexington, Loyola, Damus, Golden Desert, Alta, the Greenhill Round Robin, and others.

As a competitor, he was one of only three juniors to ever win the Tournament of Champions and is the only person to win the tournament twice. He was the champion of Blake, Emory, the Iowa Round Robin twice, the Greenhill Round Robin twice, and St. Marks twice. Chris was also a semi finalist at Greenhill and the Glenbrooks, and a finalist at Berkeley. Chris was a four year qualifier to the NSDA National Tournament in Lincoln-Douglas, U.S. Extemp Speaking, and Congressional Debate.

Devane is a former debater for Rutgers-Newark and Newark Science. With Rutgers Newark, Devane won the 2017 CEDA National Championship and the 2017 NDT. He also was the top Speaker of the 2017 NDT. Devane has coached on the college and high school level and has coached multiple qualifiers to the TOC, CEDA nationals, the NDT and debaters to late elimination rounds at national tournaments throughout the season. Devane has also taught top lab at a number of Policy and LD camps.

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Kritik Debate, Ethos, Research, Winning

Nick Smith is the Assistant Director at VBI. He studied Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. He was the Director of Debate at Hopkins for four years, a coach at St. Thomas Academy & The Visitation School, in addition to privately coaching several students. He now is the head coach at Apple Valley High School. His students have won multiple state championships and reached late elimination rounds at numerous national championships.