Adam has been involved with debate since 2008. He competed at Winston Churchill high stool (San Antonio, TX) ending a decade long drought for TOC appearances in policy debate. While Adam is proud of his highly successful career as a competitor the majority of his time in the activity has been as a coach. He has coached multiple teams to late elims of every major high school or college tournament. His high school teams have won multiple state championships both in Oklahoma as well as both TFA and UIL championships in Texas. He has coached multiple first round at large bid teams to the NDT as well as a 5th place Copeland ranking team in addition to a CEDA national championship winning team. His students success outshines all his personal accomplishments and he is proud to be a part of their stories.

Alice competed at Heights High school for four years in policy and LD and qualified to TFA state and the TOC. She was also a Houston Urban Debate League debater! Now, she is an assistant LD coach at The Harker School. Her debate interests include settler colonialism, topicality, and policy debates, and she is excited to work at VBI this summer!

Andrew Brandt debated for four years at Isidore Newman School in LD. He received eight bids to the TOC, over ten round robin invitations, and reached late elimination rounds at tournaments such as Apple Valley, Cal Berkeley, and the NYC Invitational. In more traditional forms of debate, he was top ten and second speaker at NSDA Nationals in LD his junior year. His debate interests include any variety of kritik, topicality, and creative affirmative innovation. Andrew is excited to teach at VBI this summer!

Ashley is a a Questbridge rising freshman at Amherst College. She debated in Policy and LD for 6 years at Newark Science. In her career, she was in elimination rounds of national tournaments, received multiple round robin invites, and championed tournaments. In her senior year she qualified to the TOC in both LD and Policy. She was the NJ state champion and NSDA qualifier in Policy for the last 3 years of her high school career. She has the most background in structural and identity kritiks, but is also excited to talk about foundational policy skills. As a VBI alumna she’s happy to come back as an instructor!

Dash debated for St. Luke's for 4 years in primarily PF and LD. Across events, accumulated 12 bids, won the Blake round robin, and made PF TOC finals while reaching late outrounds at many other tournaments and being one of the only debaters to qualify to the TOC in multiple events in the same season. He attended VBI as a student and is looking forward to teaching this summer!

Elizabeth Elliott is currently studying Political Science and Anthropology at Wake Forest where she debates. In high school, she did LD at Isidore Newman School where she consistently reached elimination rounds of major national tournaments. Notable results each year include reaching the top fourteen at NSDA nationals as a sophomore, championing Heritage Hall her junior year, and reaching finals of Blake her senior year. She has qualified too and cleared at the TOC twice. In addition, she received ten round-robin invitations and ten career bids. Her interests in the debate include topicality, process counterplans, creative AFF writing, impact turns, and kritiks. This is her second year teaching at VBI, and she is so excited to work with students again this summer.

Joshua debated for Challenge Early College High School, a small and underfunded program where he made a name for himself on the national circuit, reaching bid rounds at tournaments like the 2023 Emory and Stanford Invitationals, qualifying twice for TFA State, and finishing his senior year as a State Octofinalist. He specializes in both policy arguments and a range of critical literature, including Non-T and T Afropessimism, Afro-Optimism, Afro-Futurism, Security, and the Cap K. Now studying Political Science and Sociology at Rice University, he remains dedicated to giving back to the debate community, having coached multiple students to Bid rounds, Round Robin invites, and the TOC while continuing to support and mentor developing debaters.

Mark has coached debate for six years. His students include TOC qualifiers in LD and policy debate and an NSDA champion in LD. His specialties include kritiks of all flavors, topicality, questionably topical AFFs, and traditional LD. He loves to work with debaters at every skill level in all styles of debate, and is excited for another summer at VBI!

Temitope Ogundare debated in high school at Newark Science and then in college at Rutgers University-Newark! Her career started in 2016 in policy at Newark Science before transitioning to LD in her sophomore year. At Newark Science, Temitope was invited to multiple Round Robins, in many late elimination rounds, and qualified to and competed at NSDA Nationals in both policy and LD. At Rutgers, Temitope competed in NDT/CEDA policy, NFA-LD, Public Forum, and British Parliamentary. During her time there she championed multiple tournaments across the varying formats and worked to better the debate community such as engaging in competition with the Bard Prison Initiative. She is excited to be working at VBI and is ready to teach about, and talk through, most things under the sun!

Truman debated at Westwood High School for four years in LD, where he primarily read policy and topicality/theory arguments, while also reading critical/philosophical positions. He was an assistant coach at Westwood as well as DebateDrills, where he coached numerous students from a variety of backgrounds. In his 3 years coaching, his students have qualified to the TOC and consistently reached late elimination rounds of national tournaments. Truman attended VBI as a student and is excited to return!