Meet the Staff

Our staff, of course, are what make DDI so special.

The debate experience and accomplishments of the DDI staff are without peer,

and unique among camps, every student at DDI has access to all of them.

John Turner - Camp Director

Director of Debate at Dartmouth College

John Turner is the Director of Debate at Dartmouth, winner of the 2021 James Unger Award for coaching, winner of the Rex Copeland award, and the winner of the 2022 NDT Ross Smith Coach of the Year Award. His debaters won the National Debate Tournament championship in 2021 and 2022.

Brandon Kelley, Director of Debate at Georgetown University

Brandon Kelley - Lab Leader

Director of Debate at Georgetown University

Brandon Kelley has been the Director of Debate at Georgetown University since 2021. As Director, he has coached multiple First Round At Large bids to the National Debate Tournament, including a team ranked 4th overall in the nation in 2024. Previously, he coached a team to the finals of the 2017 NDT. He has worked with several high-school programs including the Westminster Schools and Greenhill.

Dr. Mikaela Malsin - Lab Leader

Director of Debate at Emory University

Mikaela Malsin is the Director of Debate for the Barkley Forum at Emory University in Atlanta and the 2024 recipient of the James Unger Award for coaching the winners of the Rex Copeland Award. She previously served as the Director of Debate at Georgetown University, where she coached a team to the finals of the 2017 National Debate Tournament. She has coached the Top Speaker at the NDT four times, and has been teaching at the DDI continuously since 2011.

Johnnie Stupek - Lab Leader

Head Debate Coach at the University of Georgia

Johnnie Stupek is the Head Debate Coach of the Georgia Debate Union. Johnnie previously coached at Dartmouth College and Emory University, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree. In his time coaching, he has coached several First-Round-At-Large teams to the National Debate Tournament. As a student debating at UGA, he was a finalist at the 2019 National Debate Tournament and received two First-Round-At-Large Bids to the National Debate Tournament.

Azja Butler - Lab Leader

Debate Coach at Kansas University and Shawnee Mission South

Azja Butler debated for the University of Kansas from 2018-2021, winning several collegiate debate tournaments and becoming the first Black woman to be awarded Top Speaker at the National Debate Tournament. She now coaches for KU and Shawnee Mission South high school. Her high school teams have had multiple TOC appearances, and won the NCFL National Championship in 2022.

Nick Loew - Lab Leader

Debater at George Mason University

Nick is an alum of George Mason University, and previously debated for three years at Perry High School in Ohio. In high school he won the OSDA State Championship twice, twice qualified to NSDA nationals, and won multiple speaker awards. In college, he has broken to elimination rounds of various regional and national tournaments, most notably including the Quarterfinals of the ADA championship and Doubles of the National Debate Tournament. He attended the 4 week DDI camp in 2018, and attended for 6 weeks in 2019.

Genevieve Hackman - Lab Leader

Genevieve Hackman is the Director of Debate at Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC and an assistant debate coach at Northwestern University. Prior to that, she coached at the University of Kentucky. Genevieve earned her degree in Political Science and Statistics from the University of Kentucky in 2020, where she was a first round at-large bid to the NDT, earned multiple top 10 speaker awards, was invited to the 2019 Kentucky Round Robin, and made appearances in several elimination debates, including the quarterfinals of the Harvard Invitational and the quarterfinals of the American Debate Association Nationals. Genevieve has taught at multiple debate camps, including the University of Michigan and Georgetown University. This will be her seventh summer working at a camp.

Judah Jones - Lab Assistant

Judah is a rising sophomore at Dartmouth College, majoring in African-American Studies and English with a concentration in Literary and Cultural Studies. He currently debates for the Dartmouth Forensic Union. In high school, he competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate for McDowell HS in Pennsylvania, qualifying to the TOC. In addition to debating, since graduating he has coached a number of teams to competitive success, including state champions in policy debate. He is greatly looking forward to working with everyone this summer!

Katie Carpenter - Lab Assistant

Katie is a rising sophomore at Dartmouth College, studying Comparative Literature and Government. She currently debates for the Dartmouth Forensic Union. In high school, she qualified to the TOC while debating for Glenbrook North HS, and placed 2nd at the Illinois State Debate Tournament her senior year, qualifying for the all-state debate team. She also currently coaches at Glenbrook North. This is her second year working at the DDI.

Ilan Boguslavsky - Lab Assistant

Ilan is a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley planning to major in Applied Math. As a freshman, he qualified to the NDT and will continue competing in college policy debate. In high school, he appeared in multiple coaches' polls and reached deep elimination rounds at the Tournament of Champions. Ilan currently coaches policy debate at Head-Royce and LD at Harker. He attended the 4-week DDI camp in 2022 and is excited to return.