Bradley Wascher is the extemporaneous speaking coach at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida.
In five years with the team, he coached the champion of more than a dozen national and invitational tournaments, including NCFL, Harvard, the Barkley Forum, and Glenbrooks, with additional placings at NSDA, the MBA Round Robin, and the Extemp TOC. LHP extempers have collectively earned six semifinals, four finals, and a championship at the FFL State tournament since 2019, alongside 16 national qualifications and 34 bids to the Tournament of Champions.
As a competitor himself for Saint James School and then Western Kentucky University, Bradley won a pair of Alabama state titles and reached semifinals or finals at the TOC, the Extemp TOC, NSDA (including first place in extemp commentary in 2016), AFA, and NFA. Outside of forensics, he also has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and works in DC as a political data journalist.
Bradley joined ISD in 2022 after teaching for five summers at other camps as curriculum director and faculty. He looks forward to sharing his passion for pop music, Coca-Cola, and (most importantly) extemp!
Amber is honored to be joining her friends on the ISD team and to be taking over Interpretation of Literature this summer in Florida!
Being a trained and practiced dramaturg/director, Amber uses her professional experience around performance to contextualize the Speech experience for her students. Studying interpretation with Amber is about more than events and competition, it’s about learning artistic and collaborative processes that will jumpstart your journey into a season of incredible storytelling.
To get a taste of Amber’s style of work, check out some performances she was able to help bring to life for the NSDA Final Stage:
-“Alabama Story” 2022 Runners-Up in Duo Interpretation
-“Defacing Michael Jackson” 2021 Runner-Up in Humorous Interpretation
-“Surviving America” 2020 Runner-Up in Program Oral Interpretation
-“Defending Your Life” 2017 Champion in Humorous Interpretation
-“A Step from Heaven” 2013 Runners-Up in Duo Interpretation
-“Crafty” 2012 Runner-Up in Dramatic Interpretation
Colton Gilbert is a Debate Coach and Teacher at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. He has been involved in competitive speech and debate since 2004. In college, he competed at the University of Kentucky before transferring to Arkansas State University. In undergrad, Colton focused on Communication Studies with a minor in mathematics. In grad school, Colton received a Master’s in Communication Studies from Arkansas State University and a Master’s in Secondary Education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Since 2014, Colton has been Arkansas’s delegate at NFHS Policy Debate Topic Selection; this summer (2022) he will serve as the chair of the wording committee. As a coach, Colton has coached debaters (both policy and LD) to out rounds at national tournaments and regularly qualifies students to the Tournament of Champions and NSDA. Colton prides himself on argument development and research practices. In his spare time, he enjoys video games on his Xbox and spending time with his beloved niece.
Tara L. McLellan, a NSDA Diamond Coach, is the co-head coach of Speech & Debate at Charlotte Latin School in North Carolina. In addition to coaching Lincoln-Douglas debate, she specializes in public speaking and individual events. Tara has previously coached at Decatur High School and Saint James School, her alma mater in Alabama. She served on the Lincoln-Douglas wording committee and the 2008 Birmingham Nationals committee. In 2006, she was awarded Alabama Forensics League Coach of the Year. Tara has instructed for LD and IE summer camps at Stanford, University of Iowa, and Samford University. Tara’s eight-year-old daughter, Neva, is a forensics “kid in training,” already demanding impromptu topics and cheering on the Latin team at competitions.
Rachel Mauchline is the Director of Debate for Cabot Public Schools. She coaches students in all debate events from 7th to 12th grade. Rachel serves on a number of different Arkansas Debate Committees. Rachel received an NSDA District Commendation in 2020 for her work with Tabroom in her state and serves the NSDA as a Tabroom Superuser. Rachel founded her own nonprofit debateARkansas which is aimed at providing more equitable debate experience to students. Rachel cannot wait to work at ISD 2022!
Christopher Vincent is the Director of Speech & Debate at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, LA. He has been involved in competitive speech & debate since 2004. Formerly, he was a competitor for the University of Louisville where he reached elimination rounds at several tournaments including both CEDA and the National Debate Tournament. He has also served as the Director of Forensics for Louisiana State University. As a high school coach, he has directed several programs and has coached students to elimination rounds at many regional and national tournament including Greenhill, Emory, Harvard, Berkeley, TFA, the Tournament of Champions, NSDA, and others. Chris is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Communication Studies Department at Louisiana State University, as well as a graduate minor in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, with a primary concentration in rhetoric and culture where he studies rhetorics of space from a queer and feminist perspective. As both a classroom teacher and communication professional, he emphasizes the importance of being adaptable, critically engaging with scholarship, being innovative in argument development, and learning the fundamentals.
Chase Williams is the 6-12 Director of Speech and Debate at Taipei American School and founder of The Institute for Speech and Debate. In his 13 years of coaching, Chase has coached students across all events to national success. In 2014, Chase was a member of the Hawken coaching staff that won two national championships (Congressional Debate and Public Forum Debate) and a national runner-up (Impromptu Speaking). His students have routinely placed in the Top-10 at nationals, advanced as far as Semifinals in PF at the TOC, and have championed or been in the final round at Yale, Minneapple, The Glenbrooks, Blake, The Sunvitational, Stanford, and Emory. At the 2016 NSDA National Tournament, Chase coached the national runners-up in World Schools Debate and his student placed 6th in the Senate, at the 2018 NSDA National Tournament, Chase’s student placed 9th in the House, and at the 2020 NSDA National Tournament, Chase’s students placed 4th in Policy Debate and Taipei American School was the first international school in the 95-year history of the NSDA to ever be recognized as a Debate School of Excellence (Top-20 in the nation). At the 2021 NSDA National Tournament, Chase’s students again won a Debate School of Excellence Award.
Before transitioning to education and coaching full-time, Chase was a political operative at the local, state, and federal campaign level. He has remained involved in the political arena as a volunteer and fundraiser.
To Chase, ISD is so much more than a summer camp, it is his extended family and he can’t wait to welcome more students into that family this summer!
Maggie Woodward coaches Original Oratory and Informative Speaking at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, New York, and has been involved in forensics as a competitor & a coach for 15 years. As a student, she was the Tennessee State Champion in Original Oratory, and a national finalist in 2008. During college, she competed for Western Kentucky University Forensics. She has taught or directed Oratory at multiple summer institutes, including WKU’s Summer Forensics Institute and the Florida Forensics Institute. Students she has coached have been finalists or champions at Wake Forest, Yale, Harvard, Emory, Bronx Science, TOC, and NSDA. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Mississippi and is pursuing her PhD at the University of Southern California. She is very excited to work with the students in ISD’s new Original Oratory program this summer!
Rachel West is super excited to be apart of the ISD difference! She has been coaching collegiate and highschool speech for 3 years. During her time at Western Kentucky University, she assisted in coaching Several Persuasive National Outround competitors, the top 3 National Finalists in After Dinner speaking for 2017, and the ADS National Runner Up in 2018. As the Assistant Director for Speech and Debate at Cypress Bay Highschool last year Rachel coached several Blue Key, Glenbrooks, Sunvite, Harvard, TOC, and NSDA Finalists and Champions. As Director at Cypress Bay this season, she hopes to continue helping students craft and refine their messages and can’t wait to do the same at ISD.
