Co-Director

Bryce Piotrowski is the Director of Forensics at Seven Lakes High School. While a student at the University of Minnesota – go Gophs! – Bryce coached Public Forum for the Lakeville Debate Team, growing the squad from a couple of students to a nationally competitive squad of a dozen debaters. Bryce also served as the President of the student-run Minnesota NPDA (National Parliamentary Debate Association) team, winning the Minnesota state tournament three times. Bryce has coached Public Forum at summer camps since graduating from high school, and served as the Director of the Dartmouth Debate Institute’s Public Forum Division in 2020, Senior Instructor at the National Debate Forum from 2018 to 2021, and an instructor at the Minnesota Debate Institute in 2018 and 2019. Bryce is excited to co-direct the first session of PFBC!

Co-Director

Christian has worked as an assistant debate coach at the Blake School in Minneapolis, MN since 2014. Since then he has coached multiple major invitational champions, state champions, national champions (NDCA and TOC), and PF Season Excellence Award winners along with finalists and other deep elimination round participants. Since 2015, Christian has worked as a senior lab leader at the Harvard Debate Council’s Summer Workshops, a Director of Public Forum at Dartmouth Debate Initiative(2017) and a Curriculum Coordinator/Senior lab leader at the National Debate Forum(2017-2021). He’s excited to bring a love for activity and hopes to share that with students at PFBC this summer.

Lillian debated for four years at St. Michael Albertville High School in MN, where they lead the debate team their junior and senior year. Throughout their time on the local and national circuit, Lillian qualified to the Minnesota state tournament twice, NSDA Nationals twice, and the silver TOC. During their year on the national circuit, Lillian broke at each tournament attended and earned speaker awards at tournaments like Mid America, Minneapple, and Badgerland. They also placed second at the Blake Round Robin and 7th at NSDA nationals senior year. Since graduating, they've remained an active judge in the debate community and has enjoyed continuing to help debaters improve. Lillian is excited to be working with PF Boot Camp this summer!

Dr. Sandy Berkowitz is a World Schools and Public Forum debate coach at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she also serves as Director of the Senior Speech program. Sandy is a coach of the USA Debate Team, working primarily with the Development Team. She has been a college professor of Communication Studies, where her research interests include the connections between debate and critical thinking, gender and social practices, and critical cultural discourses. Sandy has coached for more than 30 years and is a Barkley Forum Key Coach and a recipient of the 2015 Minnesota Coach of the Year Award. She has coached at both the high school and college levels and has had award-winning students in World Schools, Public Forum, Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Congressional Debate, as well as Oratory, Extemporaneous Speaking, Informative, and Rhetorical Criticism. Sandy has taught and/or directed at several summer workshops including Cornell, NDF, GDS, Harvard, Dartmouth, VBI, and Wayne State University.

Maddie competed on the local and national circuit in PF for four years at Lakeville South in Minnesota. Throughout her time in high school, she advanced to out rounds at numerous national circuit tournaments. She also qualified twice to the Minnesota State Tournament, NSDA Nationals and silver TOC. After graduating, she started coaching for both Lakeville high schools where she was at the forefront of the team’s novice program. She coached PF teams to earn a collective 10 bids to the Tournament of Champions and semifinal at the state tournament twice. She's also an instructor with Potomac Debate where she teaches middle and elementary school PF. In addition to coaching, Maddie is the vice president of the University of Minnesota’s NPDA team. She has also coached at several other camps including NDF, DDI and MDI. Maddie is in her third and final year as a political science and journalism double major at the University of Minnesota and graduating in spring 2022.

Joshua Enebo debated in Public Forum for 3 years on the national circuit for The Blake School, and he now attends the University of Chicago. He previously worked at NDF, and is an Assistant Director of Debate for Blake. As a debater, was a semifinalist at the TOC, NDCA and Bronx, and won a state championship. He has coached multiple national champions, more than 5 state champions, and TOC finalists. He believes that evidence ethics and working hard to improve are the most important parts of succeeding at the activity.

Chad Meadows is the Director of Debate at Western Kentucky University and an Assistant with the Marist School in Atlanta Georgia. In a little over a decade of debate coaching, Chad has worked with 7 national champions in college Lincoln-Douglas debate and worked with some of the most prolific students in public forum debate both during the season and the summer at various debate institutes. More than anything, Chad believes debate success can be attained by any student willing to master its fundamentals and be a positive member of the debate community. He is excited to bring that approach to the Boot Camp this summer.

A former head speech and debate coach at Park City High School and current assistant coach at the Nueva School, Gavin’s students have advanced to elimination rounds at almost every major national invitational, including the TOC, NDCA Nationals, and NSDA Nationals. Gavin leads labs at NDF, Berkeley, and the Utah Debate Coaches’ Association summer institute; he is particularly thrilled to be joining the PFBC. Gavin studies economics and campaign management at the University of Utah.

Eli Smith has 17 years of experience as a competitor and coach in evidentiary and parliamentary debate events. He has coached champions of the TOC and NDCA. Eli has an extensive record of coaching First-Round teams in college policy debate and had teams place in the late elims of both CEDA and the NDT. He has coached PF since 2017, judged at several Round Robins, and coached the winner of the Shanghai, China championship in 2019. His favorite part of debate is Crossfire and he believes more students would benefit from focusing on mastering the skill of asking excellent questions. He believes that well-rounded students perform the best each year and is happy to work with students on almost any argument. Eli’s favorite debate strategies involve the use of Kritiks, counterplans, and smart case presses.

Shane is the Director of Debate at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA where he coaches public forum and worlds debate formats. He also is one of the original head coaches of the NSDA USA development team. Shane has coached almost every form of debate over forty years of his coaching career. He has coached multiple national and state champions and finalists in Public Forum, Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Congressional Debate as well as Oratory and Extemporaneous Speaking. Shane has coached throughout the United States at both the high school and university levels of competitive debate. He has won numerous coaching awards including being a member of the Emory University Gold Key society. Shane believes that debate provides students with a safe environment to experiment with ideas and build both communication and critical thinking skills.

Kate has been coaching debate across LD, PF, and WS since 2016, and has been an assistant coach at the Blake School in Minneapolis, MN since 2022. Since 2016, she has coached several state champions in 2 states (2018, 2022, 2023), 2 NSDA national finalists (2018, 2021), and several other deep elimination round competitors at the local, state, and national (NSDA, TOC, NDCA) tournaments. After graduating from UCLA in 2019, Kate realized her true passion was teaching debate, honing research and speaking skills, and helping debaters improve their understanding of the world around them. Having assisted in summer curriculum development for several debate programs in the past, Kate is so excited to be joining PFBC for a second year. She can’t wait to help students learn and implement new debate skills this summer!

Hi! I’m Jessica Chai (she/her), the first speaker of Seven Lakes CH, and I’ve competed in public forum debate for over five years. I’ve qualified to TFA state, TOC, and NSDA Nationals. I’ve reached elimination rounds at national circuit tournaments like Grapevine, Bronx, Plano West, Glenbrooks, Churchill, Columbia, etc. I personally like to run women-centered frameworks, but I can absolutely help you with anything from round vision to judge adaptation to weighing.

Kaylee has debated Public Forum for 4 years at Blake. Her most notable achievements include winning MN State and the Blake Round Robin, finaling Glenbrooks, octafinaling the TOC, and semifinaling the UK Season Opener. She’s qualified to Nats and the GTOC three times, and placed eighth at Nats last year. As a PFBC alum, she’s excited to come back to coach this summer!

Josh debated in public forum for Marist for 4 years and attended PFBC as a camper during its inaugural session 2 summers ago. During his junior and senior years he earned 17 bids to the TOC and was ranked top 5 in the country. Josh has broken at both the TOC and NDCA and earned speaker awards at major tournaments such as the Ivy Street Round Robin, Sunvite, Durham, and more. He considers PFBC to be one of the most formative and fun experiences of his debate career and looks forward to returning as an instructor.

Rae is a rising junior at Western Kentucky University, where they study international relations and compete on the nationally competitive NFA-LD debate team, co-championing the Alexis Elliot Round Robin, being a finalist at the WKU Fall Tournament, winning the UNT DeMougeot debate tournament, and being the top speaker at all three. Before that, they competed mostly in Public Forum debate on both the local and national level. They are incredibly passionate about debate, and are excited to teach at the PFBC this summer!

Ruhi has debated Public Forum for 4 years at Blake. Her most notable achievements include winning MN State and the Blake Round Robin, finaling Glenbrooks, octafinaling the TOC, and semifinaling the UK Season Opener. She’s qualified to Nats and the GTOC three times, and placed eighth at Nats last year. As a PFBC alum, she’s excited to come back to coach this summer!

Sofia has debated Public Forum for 4 years at Blake. Her most notable achievements include winning NDCA Nationals, MN State, and the Blake Round Robin, as well as appearing in finals at Apple Valley and the UK Season Opener, where she was also top speaker. She’s qualified to Nats and the GTOC two times, and made it to elims at both tournaments last year. As a PFBC alum, she’s excited to come back to coach this summer!

Elizabeth has debated Public Forum for 4 years at Blake. Her most notable achievements include winning Bronx, NDCA Nationals, MN State all four years she’s debated and the Blake Round Robin twice, as well as appearing in finals at the UK Season Opener and Apple Valley. She’s qualified to the GTOC three times, where she went undefeated in prelims last year. As a PFBC alum, she’s excited to come back to coach this summer!