Chris Theis is Executive Director of Victory Briefs. He currently coaches for The Marlborough School (CA). He has previously coached students from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (CA), Lexington High School (MA), Apple Valley High School (MN), Trinity Preparatory School (FL), Winston Churchill (TX). He currently sits on the National Debate Coaches Association’s Executive Committee, the National Speech Association Lincoln-Douglas Committee, and the Tournament of Champions (TOC) Lincoln-Douglas 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, Greenhill, Stanford, the Minneapple, Emory, CPS, Lexington, Loyola, Damus, 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.

Jake Nebel is Executive Director of Victory Briefs and Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He previously taught at the University of Southern California, after receiving his PhD from New York University, AB from Princeton, and BPhil from Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. As a coach, Jake’s students have won the Tournament of Champions, the NDCA National Championship, the Dukes & Bailey Cup, the Glenbrooks, the Harvard Round Robin, the New York City Invitational, the Barkley Forum at Emory, the TFA State Tournament, and other national, regional, and local championships. As a debater, he won the Glenbrooks (twice), Greenhill (twice), Harvard, Emory, Bronx, the Bronx Round Robin, the MBA Round Robin, the VBT Round Robin, and the Florida State Tournament, was in finals of NSDA Nationals, and was top speaker at the Tournament of Champions, Greenhill, Harvard, Bronx (twice), the Bronx Round Robin (twice), Yale (twice), the Vassar Round Robin, the Crestian Classic, and the Florida State Tournament. He attended VBI three times as a student and has worked at 35 sessions.

Hunniya Ahmad debated Lincoln Douglas at Coppell High school for four years in Coppell Texas. She acquired 4 career bids to the Tournament of Champions and was ranked within the top 20 LD Debaters in the nation. She has previous experience as a middle school debate coach at Coppell Debate Academy as well as private lessons. She was President of her 300+ member debate team and captain of her respective event Lincoln Douglas. Most notably, she attended Octafinals of Emory, Quarters of UT Austin and Semis of Isidore Newman. She is really excited to work with you this summer!

Nathan Chu debated for four years at Diamond Bar High School. During his career, he qualified to the Tournament of Champions twice, accumulating 8 career bids and reaching elimination rounds in his junior year. Some of his accomplishments include reaching quarterfinals of Meadows, semifinals of Damus, Harvard Westlake, and Sunvite, finals of Loyola, and championing the College Prep and Jack Howe tournaments. He also received 5th speaker at Lexington, 4th speaker at Stanford and Jack Howe, and top speaker at Nano Nagle. He's excited to work at VBI this summer!

Hi I'm Rohit! I've debated for Monta Vista High school for four years and I've got 5 career bids, qualifying to the toc my junior and senior year. Additionally, I've qualified to the NSDA Nats and the California state tournament. Outside of debate, you'll find me obsessing over Indian food, manufacturing custom stress balls, and enjoying west coast weather.

Elizabeth Elliott debated for four years at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, Louisiana. She did policy for her first two years before transitioning to LD her junior year. She has consistently reached elimination rounds of major national tournaments. Notable results each year include reaching top 14 at NSDA nationals as a sophomore, championing Heritage Hall her junior year, and reaching finals of Blake her senior year. She has qualified to the TOC and cleared at the TOC twice with 10 career bids. In addition, she has received 10 round robin invitations between their junior and senior year. Her interests in debate include topicality, process counterplans, creative AFF writing, impact turns, and kritiks. Elizabeth is very excited to work at VBI this summer!

Iris debated in LD for four years at Harvard-Westlake, qualifying twice to the TOC and earning six career bids. Her debate accomplishments include finals of the JW Patterson invitational, semifinals of St. Marks, and quarterfinals of Peninsula and Stanford. Iris is most interested in policy-style arguments, especially foreign policy topics, but is also interested in topicality and basic philosophy. She's excited to teach at VBI this summer!

Jack Miller debated for four years at ACCS. During his time in debate, he qualified for TOC twice, advanced to late elims of tournaments such as Bronx and Valley, and won Stanford. He enjoyed reading a wide variety of philosophical and theoretical positions, as well as critical positions with an emphasis on disability and high theory.

Adam debated for four years at Ayala and Damien High School, earning 20 career bids and qualifying for the Tournament of Champions three times. He competed in Policy and LD, winning or reaching the finals of Harvard-Westlake twice, The Barkley Forum, Arizona State, College Prep, Loyola, Jack Howe, Meadows, and Damus invitationals. He reached the quarter or semifinals of NDCA, Berkeley, Mid America Cup, Harvard-Westlake RR, Nano Nagle, Grapevine, and the King RR. He's very excited to teach this summer.

Devane is a senior instructor at Victory Briefs. 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

Jacob Nails is Head Researcher at Victory Briefs. He debated 4 years for Starr's Mill High School (GA) in Lincoln Douglas debate, graduating in 2012. As a competitor, he won the Georgia state tournament, cleared at NSDA nationals, and qualified to the TOC. In college, he qualified twice to the National Debate Tournament in policy debate. Jacob has 7 years of experience coaching LD debate, including coaching debaters to top seed at the TOC, as well as Top Speaker awards at Harvard, Yale, and Bronx. He has taught at over twenty sessions of the Victory Briefs Institute.

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Research, Philosophy, Theory Debate

SunHee Simon has participated in debate since the 7th grade and has been a championship debater in both Lincoln Douglas and Policy Debate. In 2015, she was one of only two people to qualify to the Tournament of Champions in CX and LD. Her freshman year at Stanford University, she earned the semifinal title at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) national tournament. Now, she coaches students independently, having gotten a variety of students to late elims, finals, and/or championships of national tournaments like the Glenbrooks, NDCA, Berkeley, Emory, and the TOC. She is currently a full time teacher at Coppell High School where she continues to coach speech and debate.

Expertise: Kritik Debate, Traditional Debate, Research

Nick Smith is a Director of Instructional Design & Curriculum at Victory Briefs. 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, reached late elimination rounds at many major national tournaments, received numerous round robin invitations, and have frequently qualified to the TOC, NSDA Nationals, NDCA Nationals, and NCFLs. This will be Nick’s eleventh summer at VBI!

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Kritik Debate, Philosophy Debate, Traditional Debate, Research

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Su debated for Mountain House High School for four years. During her senior year, she qualified to the Tournament of Champions, reaching elimination rounds at tournaments including Loyola, College Prep, Peninsula, and Heart of Texas. As a debater, she enjoyed reading policy arguments with a focus on impact turns and process counterplans.

Marshall Thompson is a Director of Instructional Design & Curriculum at Victory Briefs. He is is currently pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Florida State University, having previously received a bachelors degree in philosophy from Wheaton College. A large portion of Marshall's academic studies focuses on the science and practice of effective teaching. Marshall has been successful both as a debater and coach; in recent years he has coached debaters to win major national tournaments (such as the Bronx Invitational) and reach late out rounds at many others (including twice reaching finals of the TOC). Marshall is an experienced camp instructor having both taught and developed curriculum at multiple camps for years. This will be his tenth summer teaching at VBI.

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Theory Debate, Philosophy Debate, Research

Lawrence Zhou is Director of Lincoln Douglas and Director of Publishing at Victory Briefs, where he was formerly a Lincoln-Douglas Curriculum Director. He is the 2014 NSDA Lincoln-Douglas national champion. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma where he was a MIS major with Philosophy, Marketing, and Chinese minors. He is an assistant coach at The Harker School and a graduate assistant at the University of Wyoming, was a member of the OU Ethics Bowl Team where he placed as the National Runner Up at the 2018 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Competition, and debated on the OU Shannon Self Debate Program policy team where he advanced to outrounds at the 2016 and 2018 CEDA Tournament. He was the League Co-Director of Debate at the National High School Debate League of China from 2019-2020, promoting Public Forum Debate in China.

Joanne debated in LD for four years at Archbishop Mitty High School in California, qualifying to the TOC and clearing at NSDA Nats their senior year (accumulating three career bids). Notably, they were champion of the College Prep Invitational, finalist at Jack Howe and the Presentation Round Robin, and quarterfinalist at the Cal Berkeley Invitational. As a coach, they have coached multiple students to bid to the LD Tournament of Champions. They currently attend Columbia University, where they compete in both policy and APDA. Joanne attended VBI three times as a student and once as an instructor and is excited to return this summer!

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Theory Debate, Kritik Debate, Traditional Debate, Research

Rebecca Anderson debated Lincoln-Douglas for four years at Harrison High School, serving as co-captain her junior and senior years. Qualifying to the Tournament of Champions her senior year, she cleared at nearly every bid tournament she attended, including championing Holy Cross and reaching quarterfinals of Glenbrooks. She consistently received speaker awards at bid tournaments, placing as top speaker at Grapevine and UPenn. She was a semifinalist at the NYSFL State Championship and has qualified each year to NCFL, reaching elimination rounds as a freshman. She will be attending the University of Pennsylvania this fall and can't wait to teach at VBI!

Expertise: Theory Debate, Kritik Debate, Traditional Debate

Silma Bathily debated for three years in Lincoln Douglas at Success Academy High School, serving as LD captain his senior year. He qualified to the Tournament of Champions his senior year. In his senior year, he reached Quarters of both the John Edie Holiday Debates and the New York City Invitational. Silma has mainly read kritiks, and theory more specifically afropessimism.

Expertise: Theory Debate, Kritik Debate, Ethos

Quentin Clark did Lincoln Douglas for 4 years at the Harker School in San Jose, California. During his career, he qualified to the Tournament of Champions, reached the double-octofinals of the NDCA, Presentation, Greenhill, and Golden Desert tournaments, semifinals of Damus and the Voices Round Robin, and finals of College Preparatory. He is now an assistant coach at The Harker School, where he has coached students in elimination rounds of bid tournaments. Quentin is currently studying Computer Engineering at Boston University. Previously, Quentin attended VBI as a student, and is excited to return as an instructor!

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Research

Giovanni Cutri is a senior and a team captain at Harrison High School, where he has debated for the past four years. He is the National Speech and Debate Association's #1-ranked Lincoln-Douglas debater both nationally and in New York State. To date, Gio has earned 13 career TOC bids and won the Glenbrooks, Princeton, Isidore Newman, and Newark (he is the first Harrison debater to win this tournament twice); he has also reached elimination rounds at Loyola, Grapevine, Greenhill, Bronx, Apple Valley, Scarsdale, Blake, Lexington, Emory, and Harvard, among other tournaments. Additionally, Gio was top speaker at Blake, Lexington (twice), Isidore Newman, and Ridge, and was 5th speaker at the 2020 TOC.

Expertise: Kritik Debate, Ethos, Performance debate

Sreyaash debated for 3 years at Northview, and accumulated 10 career bids to the TOC, clearing to double-octofinals his Junior year. He made it to semifinals at Glenbrooks, Yale, and UT, quarterfinals of Blake, Lexington, and Emory, finals and top speaker of the Blue Key RR, and co-championed the Harvard RR as the top speaker. Srey's debate interests were multifaceted but focused on policy arguments, theory/topicality, tricks, and some kritiks. This will be his first summer as staff at VBI.

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Theory Debate, Kritik Debate

Joey debated for Strake Jesuit (TX) for 4 years in LD. He qualified to TFA State 4 times and TOC twice, reaching octafinals his junior year and auto-qualifying his senior year. He had 13 career bids with 1 his junior year and 12 his senior year -- tying for bid leader. He championed the Florida Blue Key Round Robin, the Scarsdale Invitational, the Lexington Invitational, and Golden Desert. He finaled at Yale and Bronx, and reached late elims at many other tournaments. He has received the top speaker award at Glenbrooks, Peninsula, and St. Mark’s, and was second speaker at Yale. His main debate interests include theory, tricks, philosophy, and kritiks. His interests outside of debate include listening to music, lifting, and hanging out with friends.

Expertise: Theory Debate, Kritik Debate, Philosophy Debate, Tricks Debate

Akshay debated for Harker in LD for 7 years. He was captain of the LD team his sophomore, junior, and senior years. He has qualified to the TOC 3 times, accumulating 10 career bids so far. He closed out the Nano Nagle Classic and reached the semifinals of the UC Berkeley Tournament, the NDCA National Championship, and the Harvard-Westlake tournament. He also was a top 10 speaker at the TOC his junior year. Akshay also received invitations to the Greenhill RR (2x), the Glenbrooks RR, the Voices RR (3x), the Harvard-Westlake RR (3x), and the King RR. His primary debate interests include policy arguments and some kritiks. Akshay attended VBI twice and looks forward to returning as an instructor!

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Research

Breigh Plat debated for four years in Lincoln Douglas, graduating from Legacy Christian Academy in Texas. She qualified to the Tournament of Champions twice, accumulating 5 bids thus far and reaching elimination rounds at every tournament senior year. She reached quarterfinals at Valley and Lexington, semifinals at Grapevine, Strake, and Churchill, and octofinals at Greenhill. During the year, she also helps lead W.in Debate, a mentoring service for girls and gender minorities. Breigh’s has read a variety of positions, but is primarily interested in high theory kritiks, topicality, and theory. She can’t wait to teach at VBI this year!

Expertise: Theory Debate, Kritik Debate, Philosophy Debate

Jasmine Stidham is a teacher and coach at the Harvard-Westlake School in California and an assistant coach for Dartmouth College. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she debated for four years in college policy debate. During her career, she managed to set records for her University: qualifying to the National Debate Tournament all four years, being the first team from UCO to receive a first-round bid to the NDT, reaching NDT octafinals two years in a row, winning several tournaments and top speaker awards, and more. As a high school coach, Jasmine has qualified dozens of students to the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate, including a TOC finalist. During her first year at Harvard-Westlake, the team earned 62 TOC bids and qualified 13 students in LD. At the collegiate level, Jasmine has helped to coach several Dartmouth teams to elimination rounds of major national tournaments and several have qualified to the NDT. She also manages Girls Debate, an organization dedicated to highlighting issues facing gender minorities in debate and providing free resources to the debate community. Jasmine is extremely excited for her first summer as a VBI instructor!

Expertise: Policy Arguments, Kritik Debate, Research

Ben Waldman competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate for Walt Whitman High School for five years, qualifying to the Tournament of Champions as sophomore, junior, and senior. Ben has acquired nine career bids as of January 2021, reaching semifinals at Valley, Lexington and Bronx. He has received invitations to the Penn, Harrison, Valley, and Harvard round robins. As a senior, Ben was vice president of Walt Whitman’s Speech & Debate team. Ben’s debate interests include normative philosophy, postmodern philosophy, and theory. He is also experienced in tricks debate.

Expertise: Theory Debate, Philosophy Debate, Tricks Debate