The AFA sponsors two intercollegiate national championships in debate and speech. We applaud the competitors, coaches, and administrations who worked tirelessly to provide a successful season and end-of-the-year tournaments despite the many barriers posed by COVID-19 and hybrid working environments.
Full final results packet can be found here.
Patrick Seick, University of Tampa
Mark Rittenour, University of Akron
Darren Epping-Fuentes, Kansas State University
The 2022 American Forensic Association National Speech Tournament awarded Zenobia Harris Bivens a Distinguished Alumni Award posthumously.
In 2003, Zenobia Harris Bivens was the first Black woman to win the NST. She competed for West Texas A&M University. In 2003, she placed in Final Rounds of Poetry, Prose, and Duo and placed in the Semi-Final Rounds of DI, Info, and POI. After graduating from West Texas A&M, she pursued her master’s degree at the University of Alabama while serving as a graduate assistant and coach for the Alabama team. While at Alabama, Zenobia created the Coalition for Change to preserve civil rights and Black gravesites found on the Alabama campus.
Zenobia then attended Northwestern University—Pritzker Law School where she was a legal extern to former Senator Barack Obama & graduated cum laude with a Doctor of Jurisprudence. Zenobia served as clerk for the Honorable Carl E. Stewart of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and the Honorable Justice Dale Wainwright (ret.) of the Texas Supreme Court. She served as counsel in cases involving NASA, the Department of Defense, & the Department of Housing and Urban Development among many. Zenobia successfully argued a case before the United States Supreme Court. At the time of her death, Zenobia was a Managing Partner for the Frost, Brown & Todd Law Firm. She was relentless in her pursuit for justice, and this was evident in her pro bono advocacy work as she was particularly passionate about helping those who had been denied justice by the legal system that she so cherished.
Zenobia was one of the first to volunteer to assist in being and finding legal counsel for the NST. She also worked with the Houston Urban Debate league developing a curriculum for speech in the debate for low-income and at-risk students in Houston. She not only took the advocacy outside of the round but actively changed the world.
As a distinguished alumnus, she brought speech outside the classroom and into action.
Zenobia passed away on January 8, 2022.
Congratulations to Juanita Page Wilson for receiving a 2022 American Forensic Association Distinguished Alumni Award.
Although Juanita Page Wilson’s accomplishments are long, justifying her as deserving of this award only takes one sentence: Two-time AFA-NST National Champion, UNL Undergraduate Achievement Award Winner, Hearst Award Winner, NAACP Award Winner, Emmy Award Winner.
As a student, competitor, and professional, she has been an innovator and leader. When Juanita came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) she had never competed in high school speech. After graduation, she began working at Warner Brothers Media, formerly Discovery Inc. as a post-production marketing coordinator. Since then, she has worked on a number of projects at Discovery, such as Shark Week, Space Launch Live, Skyscraper Live and received recognition for her work on the international event Race to Extinction. This television special sought to highlight species extinction and curb carbon emissions. Her current position at Warner Brothers Discovery is International Programming and Content Manager. This involves overseeing the international programming matters for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Motor Trend and Discovery + . The projects she has engaged in help promote facts and science, two things our society needs more of at this time.
Although Juanita’s work is often behind the scenes, she still uses her voice for important causes. In 2014, she won an Emmy for her voice over work with the short film Fair and Free featuring Sandra Day O’Connor about the need to keep America’s judges free from the influence of politics and money. She has also starred in and produced short films for the NAACP Image Awards celebrating Black History month. Years after her eligibility was up, she is still showing us that her voice has power and an audience.
Champions: Dartmouth College Arvind Shankar & Tyler Vergho
2nd place: University of Michigan Rafael Pierry and Giorgio Rabbini
Semifinalists:
University of Kansas Mickey McMahon & Michael Scott
University of Southern California Julian Kuffour & Kevin Sun
All final Results can be found here.
Top Speaker: Eugenia Giampetruzzi, Emory University
Rex Copeland Award (for top seeded team prior to the tournament): University of Michigan Rafael Pierry and Giorgio Rabbini
The AFA congratulates the 2022 award winners recognized at this year’s National Debate Tournament!
NDT Board of Trustees Special Recognition Award to Dr. Mike Davis, Chief of Staff to the President, James Madison University. This award is not given every year, but it is designed to recognize someone who has provided a particular service to the tournament.
Lucy M. Keele Award for leadership and service to the intercollegiate debate community-Dr. David Cram-Helwich, Senior Lecturer and Director of Forensics at the University of Minnesota
George W. Ziegelmueller Award for Excellence in Education-Dr. Amber Kelsie, Assistant Professor of the Practice/Associate Debate Coach at Wake Forest University
Ross K. Smith Coach of the Year Award–John Turner, Director, Dartmouth Forensic Union
David Sutherland, Chair of the Board of International Care Ministries, has been honored by the Board of Trustees of the National Debate Tournament, with the 2021 Laurence H. Tribe Award for Excellence in Public Advocacy.
The award, named after 1961 NDT champion Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University, is given annually to an alumna of the National Debate Tournament who has taken advocacy skills acquired through participation in intercollegiate debate and become an exemplary public advocate who makes a real difference in the world.
Sutherland was a decorated debater for the University of Louisville from 1978-1982. He qualified for the National Debate Tournament four times, reaching the semi-finals in 1981 and winning the tournament in 1982. After completing an undergraduate degree in Accounting at Louisville, he received an M.S. in Taxation from American University and a J.D. with an emphasis in International Law from the University of Virginia.
Sutherland began his career in the financial industry, most notably serving in the U.S. Treasury Department and as Morgan Stanley’s Chief Financial Officer in the Asia Pacific region. In 1999, he became the Chair of the Board of International Care Ministries, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring innovative, holistic solutions to the wide range of needs faced by families living in ultra-poverty-or less than fifty cents per person a day.
During Sutherland’s 23 years of leadership, the ICM team has successfully built a focused, effective, efficient, and scalable set of solutions that have changed the lives of over 1.4 million individuals in the Philippines. In response to the COVID crisis, ICM pivoted to provide essential hunger relief among the poor in the Philippines, distributing over 14,000,000 meals and providing essential COVID health education. In the coming year ICM hopes to export its rigorously assessed best practices to communities in Uganda and Guatemala.
Dr. Dean Karlan, Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University and co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab, said “Dave’s compassion for those less fortunate and passion for rigorous analysis are inspiring. I hope this award likewise inspires others to take action the way Dave has to use our strengths and resources to help those less fortunate.”
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