Institute Faculty

The faculty members at URNDI are committed to the process of teaching debate. Not only has our faculty won countless numbers of major trophies and awards, the URNDI takes pride in a unique emphasis on teaching and linking debate expertise to educational expertise. In addition, some of the most talented and driven debaters on the Richmond Debate team will be joining the faculty, both as resident assistants and as research guides. "Spider Debate," the informal label for the program, will also support a number of guest lecturers and lab leaders from our outstanding college coaching staff. The staff-student ratio will remain at perhaps the lowest level in the country, and all of our lab leaders will have earned advanced degrees in Communication Studies or a similar field in addition to having established a proven record of coaching championship level debate. We are proud of the fact that many of the debaters that come to the URNDI continue on to debate in college and many of the Richmond undergraduates go on to careers in teaching and coaching.      

Stephen Stetson
On the POVERTY topic Stephen Stetson is one of the best experts in the area with national level debate expertise as well.  He is on regular conference calls with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, works with the head of the nation's largest homelessness advocacy organization, and is involved in Hurricane Katrina relief on a daily basis. Stephen's organization Alabama Arise is a member of a nationwide network of state fiscal analysis organizations with a focus on poverty and adequate state budgets.  We have all the latest material on stimulus money and how it is being used.  Mr. Stetson's personal areas of expertise include Hurricane Katrina relief and coastal recovery work; death penalty and criminal justice issues for the poor (self-representation, indigent defense networks like public defenders); public education; environment (specifically environmental justice); and public transportation.  Before his work in the field, Stephen Stetson came from humble debate origins in rural Alabama. He restarted a dormant debate program as a freshman in high school and debated under four different coaches in four years of high school, ultimately qualifying for NFL Nationals, CFL Nationals and the TOC. He accepted a debate scholarship to the University of Kentucky and finished his college debate career at the University of Texas. While a college debater, he qualified for the National Debate Tournament four times, never finishing with a losing record. Despite debating only one full semester during his final year of college debate, Stephen won numerous speaker awards and qualified for a first round at-large bid to the NDT, where he finished in the quarterfinals, losing to the tournament's eventual champions.

Stephen also has extensive coaching experience. He has over a decade of high school and college coaching experience and has worked at the Stanford Debate Institute, the Samford Debate Institute, multiple summers at the University of Kentucky Institute (including work with the Fellows Program) and numerous summers at the University of Texas Debate Institute. He has also coached in a professional capacity at high schools and colleges around the nation. Students he has coached have gone on to win numerous high school and college tournaments, including the NDT. A former professional journalist, he also earned a law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law and passed the State Bar.  We are very excited that Stephen will be joining us for the end of week one.

Kelly Congdon
Kelly Congdon is one of the most insightful thinkers in debate, merging rhetoric, argumentation, and critical theory into a paradigm for contemporary debate. Kelly debated for West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Virginia, winning the 1992 Virginia state affirmative team championship. As an undergraduate debater at the University of Texas, he reached the quarterfinals of the NDT his junior year and received a prestigious first-round bid to the NDT his senior year, placing him among the top 16 teams in the nation. Kelly also qualified for the elimination rounds at virtually every major national tournament during the course of his career. This success was also mirrored in round-robin competition; Kelly placed second at the 2000 University of Kentucky Thoroughbred Round Robin. After graduating from the University of Texas (BA, '01), Kelly taught at Georgetown High School in Georgetown, TX. As Director of Debate, Kelly guided the Georgetown team to numerous team and individual awards, including the University Interscholastic League and Texas Forensics Association state championships; first place at Greenhill; first place at the Colorado Round Robin; second place at the Gulf Coast Round Robin and first place at the University of Texas Round Robin.  From Texas, Kelly joined the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School in Communication Studies where he earned a Master's Degree in rhetoric and media studies. He was also instrumental in Pittsburgh's success, coaching teams to multiple elimination rounds and qualification for the NDT. Having completed his coursework toward his doctoral degree, Kelly Congdon earned a faculty position at the University of Richmond where he currently teaches Rhetoric and Public Address, Argumentation and Debate, and Rhetoric and the Law. His leadership and teaching insight have made him the most active Assistant Debate Director in the program's history, and he brings a strong familiarity of high school debate that arguably positions him as one of the best lab leaders in the nation.

Kevin Kuswa
Kevin Kuswa has taught over 30 sessions of debate workshop, including at Dartmouth, Texas, Catholic and Vermont and he has a contagious passion for teaching and argumentation. He consistently receives outstanding evaluations from his students, students who have gone on to win almost every major tournament in the country, high school and college. The affirmative and negative arguments that Kevin guides each summer are always topic-shaping throughout the entire season. Among his accomplishments as a high school debater, he won the California swing sweepstakes, was the top speaker at NFL nationals, and reached the final round of the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky. In college, he received second place at the Kentucky round robin, Wake Forest and Northwestern before winning the National Debate Tournament for Georgetown University in 1992. Significantly, he reached the "Round of 16" at the National Debate Tournament four years running, each year with a different partner. Having graduated from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, Kevin then coached the NDT Champions and Top First Round Team from Dartmouth College in 1993. Success continued at the University of Texas where Kevin coached numerous NDT first-rounds, including two semifinal teams, the best performance UT has had at the NDT. In 2001, Kevin received his PhD in Rhetoric from the University of Texas at Austin after being named the 1999-2000 Graduate Student of the Year. Dr. Kuswa is presently the Director of Debate at the University of Richmond where the team has qualified to the NDT an unprecedented seven years in a row, including the first two-team contingent from Richmond in 2006. As a faculty member in Rhetoric and Communication Studies, Dr. Kuswa teaches public address, argumentation, rhetoric and culture, questions in communication and a rhetoric of terrorism course that has been profiled by CNN and Voice of America.

Flemming Schneider
On the IMMIGRATION topic Flemming Schneider is one of the best experts with national debate experience in the country.  Flemming grew up in Denmark and has traveled extensively across the globe, a true scholar of the world, fluent in multiple languages, and one of the fastest students to pick up debate.  Having debated for four years at the University of Richmond, Flemming became a very successful varsity debater and was known throughout the region for his insightful and creative arguments.  He is one of the most popular and requested teachers we have ever had at the camp, and his novice experience as a collegiate deabter has made him one of the most patient and helpful teachers in the country.  He is extremely well-read in political science, economics, philosophy, and a number of other fields, including his ultimate expertise in Rhetoric and Communication Studies (He won the Graeber Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to the University of Richmond community in 2008).  He will attend graduate school at Wake Forest to both coach debate and earn an advanced degree in Communication Studies, as he is certain to make waves in the field in years to come.  He is presently based in Birmingham, Alabama, where he is one of the Professor-Coaches at the SPEAK FIRST debate league for underserviced public high school students in the region.  Not surprisingly, Mr. Schneider has brought his drive and spirit to the Alabama debate community and we are very happy to have him back at the URNDI this summer.

Elizabeth (Liz) Lauzon
Liz Lauzon brings intensity, experience and academic grounding to the teaching table. Debating in Virginia as a high school student, she won the VHSL Classic Switch-side Policy Debate Championship in 2005. Liz also placed 3rd in VHSL classic affirmative team policy debate in 2002, 4th in affirmative classic policy debate in 2003, and 4th in contemporary policy debate at VHSL State Championships in 2004. Given her experience, Liz has debated varsity since joining the Richmond team, although her one foray into junior varsity earned her a final round appearance at the University of Texas at Dallas and 5th speaker. Since then, Liz has won varsity speaker awards at West Point and Appalachian State, and her research skills and work ethic have quickly propelled her to a leadership position on the team. Most significantly, Liz is an academic star, receiving a prestigious grant from Richmond's Center for Civic Engagement and the Quest Program to pursue her research throughout the summer. Liz's combination of insight and academic strength has made her one of the best teachers of debate in the region.  She was a teaching scholar at the University of Vermont’s World Debate Institute on the constructive engagement topic and a teaching fellow at ASU”s Arizona Debate Institute on the agriculture topic.  Most impressively, Liz had a paper on rhetorical theory accepted at the Rhetoric Society of America’s National Conference in 2008 which she presented in Seattle.  In her final debate tournament, the NDT, Liz and her partner Ashley Fortner earned a 4-4 record with enough ballots to rank 40th in the country, the best finish for a Richmond team.  She will be attending grduate school in Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California on a scholarship to coach debate.

Nehal Shah
Nehal Shah's debate career began at Dulles High School in Sugar Land (Houston), Texas. She debated there for four years and attended multiple debate institutes during that time. While in high school, she enjoyed successes at both regional and national tournaments. After graduation, Nehal worked at the University of Texas debate institute for two summers where she received glowing evaluations from all of her students. At the University of Richmond, Nehal has cleared at numerous tournaments and qualified for the National Debate Tournament—a feat that had not been achieved at Richmond since 1976.  Nehal is a brilliant academic as well, receiving accolades from a number of professors and being appointed to a prestigious internship at the Potomac Terrorism Institute in Washington, D.C. After qualifying for the NDT twice more and serving as the team's president, Nehal now resides and works in Texas having graduated from Law School there. She enjoys researching and debating both policy and critical arguments and is an amazingly insightful and patient teacher. Her law school experience provides insight for students into the overlapping worlds of reasoning, argumentation and research.

David Marquardt
David taught at SCFI (Sun Country Forensics Institute) for two years (2004/2005) where he received outstanding evaluations.  He was a Lincoln-Douglas lab leader and lecturer both years. He competed at the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate his senior year (2004). David also qualified for both NFL Nationals and Catholic Nations (NCFL) three straight years in Lincoln-Douglas debate.  After enrolling at the University of Richmond in 2004, David became an integral member of the Spider Policy Debate Program and has debated each of his first three years in college. Clearing at tournaments like West Point and Richmond, David has also become the head of recruiting for the program. Testifying to his passion for teaching and in-depth research, David received a Quest Research Grant from the University of Richmond to pursue independent research in rhetoric and critical theory. Having graduated in 2008, Mr. Marquardt lives and works in Richmond.  David loves all forms of debate and brings an unparalleled academic insight to Lincoln-Douglas debate as well as skills in judge adaptation and the application of critical theory to debate.

Mark Arnold
Mark Arnold, a four-year debater from Richmond in the 1990s, has been working with the team since he graduated and has been a coaching faculty member for the Spiders for a number of years.  The debaters always appreciate his sense of perspective and conception of debate as a game, even if it is an important game.  As a judge and mentor he has helped the program remain connected to its roots while striving for further successes. In addition to his experience at the University, Mark also brings an energy to debate that has helped the team expand. Mark is a wonderful addition to the institute staff because he brings valuable expertise to the table that many coaches do not offer in terms of experience in performance and management. He is a computer software expert, working as an IT consultant in the Richmond area, and can assist debaters in research, data storage and flowing programs. Mark is also a talented musician and performance artist. In many ways his experience playing for a number of bands in the Richmond area gives him special insight into judge adaptation, performance in debate and argumentation using multiple media sources.  He is also known for his session, A Debater’s Survivor’s Guide, a staple of all URNDIs.

Michelle Gajda
Michelle is a distinguished teacher at Douglas S. Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia, where she teaches Mathematics and Special Education as well as having coached the Speech Team.  As a VHSL educator, Mrs. Gajda's impomptu student qualified to Regionals--a first in many years at Freeman, and she teaches Lincoln-Douglas at the URNDI.  She was a nationally competitive Extemper and debater in high school, reaching the elimination rounds at TFA, UIL, and winning the highly competitive St. Mark's High School Tournament in policy debate for the Woodlands HS in Houston.  Her forensics background and teaching experience make her one of the most helpful and energizing lab instructors at the workshop and we are happy to have her expertise again this summer.

James Farr
James Farr came from a debate hotspot in the Southeastern Virginia Tidewater region, jumpstarting a stagnant debate program as a sophomore in high school and subsequently qualifying for NFL Nationals, CFL Nationals, and VHSL State Competition in the Lincoln-Douglas division. With four years of high school experience, James quickly propelled through Junior-Varsity and then to the Varsity divisions.  Through his career, Mr. Farr has won numerous awards including top consecutive regional champion for the Tidewater Region, 3rd at VHSL State Championships in 2006, a number of high school invitational wins, and strong records at both regional and national-circuit policy debate tournaments in NDT-CEDA debate. He has taught many debaters from Virginia Beach, in cluding a number of qualifiers out of Tidewater regional competition in Lincoln-Douglas debate.  At the University of Richmond, Mr. Farr has not only experienced a great deal of success in debate (earning out-rounds and speaker awards at Towson, UT-Dallas, and George Mason among others), he has truly excelled in the academic arena, becoming very well-versed in continental theory and philosophy.  James not only has extensive knowledge of social contract theory, Hobessian understandings of nature, and analytic logic, he has also developed a commitment to research and understanding psychoanalytic theory (Lacan and Zizek), not to mention more popular authors such as  Jean Baudrillard, Giorgio Agamben, and Michel Foucault.  Mr. Farr's deep passion for teaching and debate along with his growing expertise in Philosophy adds a valuable element of critical theory grounded in research to the camp.

Russell Hanes
Russell debated in policy debate for 8 years, both in high school and with Columbia University's CEDA team. Since graduating, Mr. Hanes has worked with several different programs, coaching high school students to outrounds at NFL Nationals in CX, LD, and PF debate. Russell's areas of interest include comparing philosophical worldviews, including both traditional positions and critiques, and developing a coherent theoretical framework for value debate. To that end, he has published theory articles that attempt to offer a new paradigm, and he has written and donated theory primer textbooks. He will help students explain more clearly their values and help them put those values into a winning formulation.

Lucas Hakkenberg
Lucas Hakkenberg has won two state team championships in forensics and was state runner- up in foreign extemporaneous speaking at his Virginia High School. In addition, Lucas was awarded eight varsity letters for swimming, cross country, and tennis in high school-skills that help the faculty in the staff-student ultimate game but also a demonstration of what Lucas brings to the table: hard work and teamwork. He was one of the few individuals in his high school's history to compete in both academic and athletic state championships. Lucas has served in numerous leadership position including Synod Council of the Lutheran Church in Virginia.  Mr. Hakkenberg joined the debate team as a first-year and quickly excelled in the research area and in tournament competition.  He moved up through varsity to junior varsity in just a few tournaments and ended the year competing in varsity at the National Qualifier.  This past semester Lucas also completed an internship at the State Capitol advocating for the Virginia Interfaith Center. Lucas was awarded a grant to be a Burhans Civic Fellow this summer, supporting his work at the Virginia Interfaith Center educating Virginia's faith communities about issues of social justice. This work is very relevant to this year's high school debate topic on poverty and social services.

Mycal Kelly
Mycal Kelly hails from the Tidewater area where he was a successful high school debater and developed an understanding of Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate.  Mycal has been a team leader since arriving at Richmond, recruiting other students to the program and participating with great success in a number of public debate competitions across the country.  He has down very well in policy debate, clearing at tournaments in JV and Varsity as well as winning speaker awards at most of the tournaments in the area.  He and his partner were one of two teams from the University of Richmond to compete at the national qualifier for the Mid-Atlantic region.  Even more impressively, Mr. Kelly is a leader in the classroom, bringing considerations of class to other social issues such as race and gender.  His unique expertise in Marxism, critical race theory, and policy analysis all contribute to his fiery teaching style.  Mycal reached the final round of the Madison Cup at JMU, a debate broadcast across the country and including cash prizes for the participants and was also winner of the prestigious Washington-Franklin debates at Randolph-Macon College.  His public debate skills combined with his passion for research make Mycal a crucial part of the team and an outstanding teacher, both reflected in his recent selection as the 2008-09 "Sully Speaks" winner, a prestigious scholarship granted to the most successful practitioner of public argument at the University.

Bary Hausrath
Bary Hausrath started his high school debate career at Waynesboro High School in 1997 as a junior. He was among the top debaters in switch and straight-side debate in the AA Virginia High School League and Virginia CFL (Richmond Diocese) when he departed for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in 1998. There, he debated four years, during which time he reached the National Debate Tournament twice, took the CEDA JV National Title, and was named team president, most valuable member and inducted into the team Hall of Fame. During his last two years at George Mason, he organized and lectured at the George Mason University Debate Institute. After finishing college, he began coaching debate at the University of Richmond, and in 2003 came to the University of Richmond to attend law school. Throughout his tenure as a law student, Bary was a coach for the University of Richmond policy debate team, under the direction of Dr. Kuswa.  Having become a member of the Virginia Bar, Bary now practices law at the firm of Richard Knapp & Associates in Richmond, where he focuses his practice primarily on civil litigation.  Not only does Mr. Hausrath bring a legal expertise to the table, he is also a computer whiz with an astounding ability to negotiate on-line research.  Bary knows how to win debates and has been judging on the college national-circuit for almost a decade as one of a small group of highly preferred judges for any style.  His insight and research skills are always helpful for students of all levels.

Callie Dowdy
Callie Dowdy offers a unique teaching perspective because she started at Richmond with no debate experience and began competing at tournaments right away. Unlike most novices, she had multiple debates across the season and began turning in high quality research immediately, winning the prestigious "Novice of the Year" award.  The sky is certainly the limit for Callie, having won the Towson JV tournament, won the Mary Washington JV tournament, and reached the Quarterfinals of George Mason in the varsity division. Amazingly, Callie has earned a break-round at CEDA Nationals and debated to a 4-4 record at the extremely difficult National Qualifying Tournament.  She also excels in the sciences and has received research grants for her laboratory work in Chemistry.  In fact, for two summers running she has been funded by the University of Richmond to conduct research with the Chemistry Department.  Callie attends the University of Richmond on a prestigious merit scholarship and she has presented her work at major conferences and published in the field as an undergraduate.   She has a wonderful approach to learning that draws in her students and Callie is always able to explain difficult concepts in meaningful ways.  She is an inspiring teacher on the varsity and novice levels and has a proclivity for interesting 2NC strategy such as PICs or case-specific Kritiks.

Joe Chicvak
Joe was a four year member of the Chaminade High School Debate Team (Lincoln-Douglas), clearing at the New York state championship his junior year and competing at both local and national tournaments. Since joining the Richmond squad he qualified three times for the NDT, one of only three students to do so from Richmond. Joe is experienced in framework and performance debates, having developed a wide array of counter-strategies, including a sophisticated form of switch-side impact turns. Joe has extensive experience with the classic philosophers such as Nietzsche, Sartre, Rosseau, and has recently added his own favorite, J.R. Nyquist, to the list. Joe is an outstanding researcher and was one of the best debaters on the team at organizing useful and high-quality files, many of which students will learn from over the summer. Joe's teaching perspective is a unique blend of hard work and recognition that philosophy, political science, and parody can all come together in debate, making his blend of comic/critical/impact turn debate absolutely lethal.  He was one of the best 2ACs/2ARs in Spider debate history and has a number of techniques to share with students about debating successfully on the affirmative.   It was no surprise to learn that Joe had essentially aced the LSAT and is attending Notre Dame Law School.  We are very proud to have Joe back for the URNDI this year.  

Matt Bodnar
Matt, a former NFL National Champion in Policy Debate, was one of the most successful debaters in the country his senior year at Montgomery Bell Academy in Tennessee. Along with an infectious spirit for argument and an extremely creative approach to debate, Matt has developed a very unique skill for "ambidextrous debate"—being as comfortable and confident in a politics/case debate as he is in a one-off kritik debate. He is very excited as a teacher to bring these skills to high school students and provide a path for diverse forms of debate. Matt truly loves writing arguments and is one of the most organized, innovative, and efficient researchers in the country.  After qualifying for the NDT at Richmond, Matt has moved quickly into coaching and has shown amazing patience and insight with novices and junior varsity debaters. Matt specializes in international relations, with a comprehensive background in realism and security policy. His connections with a number of political science faculty at Richmond offer another resource for citations and brainstorming. Matt's primary purpose on the faculty is to provide the students with quality files to help them compete fiercely and successfully throughout the year.

Nirav Patel
Nirav Patel completed his M.A. in international security at Georgetown University after debating for four years at the University of North Texas. He now works at CNAS.  His international relations expertise in debate is absolutely superb, having published on security in India among other issues during his tenure at the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). Nirav received the prestigious Taylor internship at CSIS, given to the first-round debater interested in foreign policy and most prepared for D.C. think-tank work using research and critical thinking skills. Throughout high school, college, and now as a coach, Nirav has always been one of the most efficient, insightful, and in-depth researchers in the country. His debate skills have been a big part of the Spider's success over the years in his capacity as an assistant debate coach for the University of Richmond and as a researcher. Nirav has also been an assistant debate coach for the St. Marks School of Texas and The Carrolton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami. He was previously director of the Gonzaga Scholars Debate program where 14 of his 16 students qualified for the TOC. As a former policy debater from the University of North Texas, he received a first-round bid to the National Debate Tournament and competed in deep elimination rounds at numerous national college debate tournaments, including the NDT. Nirav and his partner reached the final round of the 2004 CEDA national tournament out of the top 200 policy teams in the country. Nirav looks forward to an opportunity to guest teach at the URNDI, and his teaching and coaching expertise will add an unmatched element of success to the workshop experience.

Ryan Smith
Ryan Smith is one of the most successful debaters in the history of Richmond debate. There is little on the Richmond debate history books that will remain the same, because Ryan has had more out-rounds than any previous UR debater, qualified for the NDT for a record four-times in a row, gone an unprecedented 7-1 at the Mid-Atlantic Qualifier twice in a row with his partner Joe Chicvak, earned a fellows position at the University of Arizona Institute two summers running, participated in 115 varsity debates, and, at the CEDA National Tournament hosting the top 190 teams in country, defeated Wichita State in the triple octofinals and Harvard in the double-octo-finals before finally losing in the round of 16 to Wayne State.  In his senior year he won the West Point sword and earned a 4-4 record at the NDT, the best showing a Richmond team has had at that tournament.  He also reached the finals of the high-pressure ADA national Tournament and took first place at the D7 Qualifier.  Ryan is now coaching debate at Baylor University where he enjoys a graduate student fellowship in communication studies.