Mr. Miha Andrič is an international communication, speech and debate teacher, philosopher, and sociologist based in Slovenia. He is currently head of programme at the Educational Center Argument, on the Board of Directors of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), a board member at Dialexicon and head of the International Speech & Debate Program Bežigrad. 

In the recent past, Mr. Andrič was the director of National Debate Organisation Slovenia and president of the Society for the Development of Humanities.  He was the convenor of the International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO) in 2020 and 2021 and has served as program director of several international debate academies, including YAV Africa, DSA Russia and ESU Turkey. 

Mr. David Baker is the Director of Admission and Financial Aid at St. Mark’s School of Texas. Prior to taking this position, he spent 16 years teaching public speaking at the school and serving as coach of the St. Mark’s Debate Team.

Under his direction, the St. Mark's Debate Program was named one of the ten most successful programs of the 20th century and his debate team won the high school National Championship in 1990.  

Mr. Baker was elected to the National Speech and Debate Association’s Hall of Fame in 2003, and to the Texas Forensic Association Hall of Fame in 2006. Commissioned following his retirement from debate, “The Baker Cup” is awarded annually by the National Debate Coaches Association to the nation’s most successful high school debate team.  

Mr. Will Baker is the Director of the NYU Global Debate program housed at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business.  He also serves as Chief Information Officer for Baker Consulting Associates based in Dallas, Texas. 

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As a student at Cornell University, Mr. Baker won over 100 speech and debate awards and was named a Venephe Wilson Scholar, the team's highest student honor. After Cornell, Mr. Baker worked at the International Association for Religious Freedom before becoming a social entrepreneur. He founded both the New York Urban Debate League and the Malcolm X Prison Debate Initiative at Riker's Island.   

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In 2003, as head of NYU’s policy debate team, Mr. Baker became the first African American director to win the national championship since Melvin Tolson of Wiley College in 1935.  Since then, Mr. Baker has overseen top national finishes for nearly 20 years in a row. His team was honored with the 2022 National Public Debate Award by the Cross Examination Debate Association. The award recognizes his team's work with the Brewer Foundation and other partners to share the transformative power of debate worldwide.

​Ms. Maggie Berthiaume is the director of debate at Woodward Academy where she coached the 2012 National Debate Coaches Association champions.

Ms. Berthiaume served on the board of the National Debate Coaches Association for six years and is a former member of the editorial board of the Contemporary Argumentation and Debate: The Journal of the Cross Examination Debate Association.

She previously debated for Dartmouth College and the Blake School in Minneapolis, MN. While at Dartmouth, she was twice a first round at-large invitee to the National Debate Tournament, reaching the quarterfinals of the NDT and the Semifinals of the CEDA Nationals.

Mr. William Brewer co-founded the national litigation firm of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors in 1984.  Since that time, he has earned a national reputation as one of the most successful lawyers in the United States practicing exclusively in the field of complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution.

Mr. Brewer is also a co-founding partner of the Brewer Foundation. A former debater himself, Mr. Brewer helped found the IPPF. In 2008, he was named “Communicator of the Year” by the National Forensic League.

Mr. Dave Huston has coached debate for over 30 years and has been a part of the IPPF competition since its second year. He has had three teams compete in the final round of the IPPF. Mr. Huston serves on the IPPF Topic Committee and has judged the IPPF written and oral competitions for years.

In addition to his IPPF activities, Mr. Huston has served two terms on the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Board of Directors. He has been a district chair for the NSDA in Iowa and Texas. He is highly skilled at tabulating debate tournaments, serving as the tabulation director for the Glenbrooks tournament, the Tournament of Champions, Greenhill, and the Texas Forensics Association State Tournament.

His debate teams have won numerous state, regional, and national competitions. Mr. Huston is an Emory University/Barkley Forum Key Coach, a member of the Texas Forensic Association Hall of Fame and the NSDA Hall of Fame.