The staff of the Forensics Institute at Oregon will be made up of some of each year’s best college debate and speech talent. Continue to check in as we add more staff over the course of our 2011/12 season. The staff will certainly be comprised of some of the great talent here at the University of Oregon debate and speech program. They include:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

 David Frank is the Dean of the Robert D. Clark Honors College and oversees the University of Oregon’s Forensics program. Professor Frank is the author of three books and many articles on intercollegiate debate and individual events speaking. David has been coaching debate for over 20 years.

Thomas Schally is the coach of the University of Oregon Debate Team. He has earned a number of distinctive debate accomplishments in both Parliamentary and Lincoln-Douglas debate, including having been ranked 2nd in the nation for parliamentary debate for two consecutive years, earning 2nd speaker at the National Parliamentary Debate Association national tournament, 3rd speaker (twice) at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, finishing 5th at NPTE (twice), appearing in more than 25 career final rounds spanning both events, and never having the same partner.

Tom is a graduate student at the University of Oregon studying Public Policy and Socio-Political studies. His research interests include environmental policy, international relations, and critical   theory. He has coached the U of O to three national finals and two national championships. He has taught at multiple debate and speech institutes around the Northwest.

Sarah Hamid is a recent graduate of the University of the Pacific, where she spent the last two years debating in both Parliamentary Debate and Lincoln Douglas. She’s won numerous awards, including winning first at five distinct high-yield tournaments, and several notable speaker awards. During the 2008 season, Sarah and her partner became the first community college team to qualify for the NPTE, which is where she began her competitive career. Her career ended with her and her partner being ranked 2nd in the nation, taking quarterfinals and 5th place at the NPDA and NPTE respectively.

She is in the Public Administration graduate program at UO, where she studies poverty reduction, labor activism, and refugee crisis. Her interests include critical theory, comparative literature, and non-intensive cooking. She has coached the U of O to two national championships. She also runs Oregon’s public debate series, the Contrarian Forum.

Benjamin Dodds  has been a part of forensics in Oregon for over a decade. He debated for Ashland High School between 2000 and 2004, and won State in Policy in 2004 (his partner that year was an ODI alumnus).  He went to Gonzaga on a Policy debate scholarship after high school, and worked at the Gonzaga Debate Institute.  In 2006, Ben transferred to the UO, joined the parli team and finished 6^th place at NPTE nationals.  He finished the 2007-2008 season ranked top 10 in the nation, appeared in the national championship debate at NPDA nationals. He capped off his career ranked #1 in the nation after winning three of the largest tournaments of the regular season and three separate first-place speaker awards (2008-2009).  Ben says he owes the vast majority of this success to the time he spent “learning about debate all day long at summer debate institutes, and the ODI is one of the finest.”

Ben is an assistant for the UO Forensics program. He also founded and directs a non-profit policy debate league in the Eugene/Springfield area. In 2011, Ben was rated the most preferred judge at the NPTE national tournament.  Since arriving in Eugene in 2006, Ben has been with the U of O for five national championship rounds, a sweepstakes national championship and coached the team to two national championships.

Many more to come….

Previously, the ODI has had national champion debaters and coaches of national championship college programs, including Oregon, Willamette, Lewis and Clark, and Western Washington.  We always round out the staff with other fantastic forensics competitors and coaches. The student to staff ratio will be 4-1 in all programs.