Meet our team
Roll over pictures to see biographies for our nationally-qualified team. Click on the image to book a session!
IAN MIKKELSEN - DEBATE/SPEECH: TP, LD, Parli, Public Forum, Platforms, Limited Prep
Ian Mikkelsen is pursuing his doctorate in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He competed in high school and collegiate speech and debate for 7 years at the National level. In high school, Ian won the 2011 Kansas State Championship in Lincoln Douglas debate and concluded his high-school career as the National LD Runner-up at the NCFL 2011 championship. In speech, he made it to finals in Impromptu for his Junior and Senior year, and Extemporaneous Speaking for his Senior year, at the Kansas State Tournament, winning the Impromptu State Championship as a Senior. In college, Ian competed in Parliamentary Debate winning multiple National Invitationals and took 2nd and 3rd place in the 2014 and 2015 National Parliamentary Debate Association Tournaments. Ian also coached several top high-school competitors, helping the Seaman High School team close out the Public Forum National Qualifiers, win its second LD State Championship, and break to late out rounds in Public Forum at Nationals. Recently, he coached students to out rounds at NSDA Nationals, qualifying bids to the TOC Lincoln Douglas Tournament, as well as the 4th place speaker and 2020 National Champion in LD for NSDA. In collegiate debate, his students have won the 2016 IPDA National Championship, as well as several late out round placements in Team IPDA Nationals. He also worked with multiple high school Congressional debate teams and helped to write pieces of legislation for the national tournament. Ian serves as a private coach for DFWSD where he enjoys working with students to help them excel in both speech and debate competition!
CODY DEDON - SPEECH: Interpretive
Cody Dedon is a NCFCA alumni with 5 years of competitive speech and debate experience. He holds 28 first place titles, 14 straight Humorous Interpretation victories, back to back H.I. national championships, an After Dinner championship and a national sweepstakes championship. After high school, Cody’s love of communication continued as he assumed the role of Head Speech Instructor for DFWSD where he coached over 1000 students. Today, Cody and his sister co-run a video and photography production company which conducts business around the world. Recently, Cody’s love of communication extended onto the big screen when he secured a lead role in a cowboy feature film entitled The Wanderer which will be out soon. For Cody, communication is not just a pastime, it is a powerful and invaluable art form to which he has dedicated his life. He would be honored to walk with you on your journey to become the best communicator that you can be!
ELSA PAUL CASTRO - PLATFORMS, LIMITED PREP, INTERP, LD
Elsa Paul Castro is a seasoned public speaker who has served as a professional speech and debate coach for a decade. She graduated with a B.A. in Paralegal Studies and a minor in Piano Performance with highest honors from Texas A&M University-Commerce, and, after working in the Philippines for a year, she moved into the finance sector and currently works as a Senior Analyst & Special Projects Coordinator at Patomak Global Partners. In high school, Elsa competed in speech and debate for three years, winning multiple awards at the local, regional, and national levels. She qualified to Nationals in Team Policy debate as a novice debater and earned multiple slots to the National Championship each year. Some of her top accomplishments include winning the title of State Champion during her first year of competition, winning second place in the Nation during her first year of Lincoln Douglas debate, and taking four speeches to finals at Nationals in 2014. She has also served as Head Speech Camp Instructor and Coach with both DFWSD and a private academy. Elsa is known for telling the story about how her own coach changed her life. She recognizes that speech and debate coaching altered the course of her life, and she loves seeing this same magic happen in the lives of her students — one coaching session at a time!
LOGAN TORVE - DEBATE: LD, PARLI, TP
Logan Torve is an NCFCA, STOA, and collegiate debate alumnus with 10 years of competition experience. He competed in Team Policy, Lincoln Douglas, and Public Forum debate in high school and 3 forms of Parliamentary debate in college. In high school, he had multiple state finals appearances and won a NCFCA national qualifier in 2013. He was a multi-tournament champion in collegiate debate, including a National Championship in IPDA in 2016. He has competition experience across the United States, including the Lafayette Debates at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. His experience gives him a unique perspective of regional and national competitive trends as well as stylistic differences.
Logan graduated with his BA in Political Philosophy in 2019 and will graduate with a master’s degree in Political Science with a focus on International Conflict Resolution in the summer of 2022. He is also teaching high school Debate and English. He is now in his 13th year of coaching debate and is passionate about helping new debaters understand the ins and outs of competition and helping seasoned debaters elevate their skill to the next level!
SUHANI JAMPALA - DEBATE: LD
Suhani Jampala debated for Newman Smith HS for four years and is attending UT Austin for Computer Science and Psychology. During her career, she qualified for the Tournament of Champions and TFA along with reaching elimination rounds at tournaments including the Longhorn Classic, Peninsula, ASU, UH Cougar Classic, and Alta. She is excited to work with students and help them explore different styles of debate that they are interested in!
ANNABELLA SACCARO - SPEECH: ORIGINAL ORATION, INFORMATIVE, IMPROMPTU, CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE, MOCK TRIAL, MOOT COURT
Annabella Saccaro is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University majoring in Human Organizational Development and Communications with a minor in Business on a Pre- Law track. She previously competed in NSDA, FFL, and NCFL for six years and considers speech and debate the best part of her high school experience. She competed in multiple speech and debate events throughout her career, but her main focuses were platform speaking events (Original Oratory and Informative Speaking). Some of her most notable achievements include finaling for Original Oratory at multiple national tournaments, including the Yale Invitational and the Florida Blue Key Invitational as well as semi- finaling in Original Oratory at the Florida Forensic League State Championship Tournament (FFL). At the height of her career, she was ranked among the top 60 in the nation for Original Oratory (NSDA). She is a three-time national qualifier and has also qualified for the Tournament of Champions Tournament (TOC) and the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament (NCFL). Annabella is also a current Vanderbilt Mock Trial Team executive board member and competes on the American Mock Trial Association Circuit (AMTA), where she has been ranked as an outstanding attorney in multiple national invitational tournament rounds. Annabella has had numerous years of experience coaching an array of speech and debate events as both a private tutor and as a three-year captain of her speech and debate team in high school, as well as experience coaching neurodiverse students. She loves sharing her passion for public speaking and takes pride in helping others find their voice. She is eager to get started working with you!
LUCY MANNING - DEBATE/SPEECH: TP, LD, Platforms
Lucy Manning is a student at Howard Payne University studying Strategic Communication, Pre-Law, and Public Policy. She is her school's debate and moot court captain, with three years of experience judging and coaching high school LD, team policy, and platform speech. Lucy has won more than twenty collegiate awards for excellence in rhetoric and argumentation and she loves to see her students develop their own argumentation skills. Lucy thinks few things are more valuable than on-your-feet reasoning. When the conversation isn't about academics, she enjoys rock climbing and late night drives.
Garima Penumechchu - DEBATE: LD
Garima Penumechchu is a former debater from Oak Ridge High school and student of Northeastern University in Economics and International Business. During her four years she primarily competed in Lincoln Douglas. During this time she had numerous achievements including qualifying every year to California State tournament and NSDA in either LD or Worlds, a 3rd place finish at the Stanford Invitational, top 16 finish at NCFL, and top 32 finish at NSDA. She also quarterfinaled numerous other invitationals and served as president of Oak Ridge’s Speech and Debate team, supporting her teammates in making it to both State and NCFL as well. She is excited to help students explore LD and improve both their storytelling and flow based skills to help them excel!
EMILY JACKSON: LD, Parli, TP, PF, Worlds
Emily Jackson has been involved in debate since she first joined her middle school’s Public Forum team. After joining her school’s Lincoln Douglas program as their only member as a junior, she went on to qualify to TFA state in both of her remaining years, and attended NSDA Nationals in World Schools Debate twice and placing in the top 64 of Extemporaneous Debate! Following her graduation, she went on to compete for the University of North Texas, where she studied Ecology. On the debate team she participated in Policy, NPDA and IPDA Parliamentary Debate, and NFA-LD. During this time, she was the four-time NFA-LD Champion at the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association. Emily enjoys helping students find new arguments and frameworks that are both competitively advantageous and unique to their interests, helping them find their own approach to debate as a whole!
Denitsa Zvetkova - Lincoln Douglas
Denitsa Zvetokva is, a freshman at Northwestern University and a passionate debate coach. In high school, she co-founded the MAST-FIU debate team, focusing on Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate. She competed at the highest levels, breaking at multiple bid competitions and achieving top 3 two years in a row at Florida State tournament, as well as qualifying for NSDA nationals for three years. Her goal is to inspire and guide students to reach their potential in debate, sharing the skills and strategies that helped her succeed. She looks forward to working with you soon!
Interested in being a part of our growing team?
Head over to our Contact Us page and fill out an interview request. We’d love to connect with nationally-qualified researchers who want to join our family