Our Instructors
Of Climb The MOuntain Speech and Debate
Brando Miller
Lyd Haindfield
Semaj Gales
John Julian Sr
Sean Haggerty
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Aidan Gonzales
Parker Davidson
Pepper Berry
Samira Jamaale
Stacy Bell
Adilina Aguirre
Beth Cole
Christina Joka
Eliza MConaghy
Evelyn Garrrington
Loraina Brady
Ivo Palazzo
Jason Sanford
Geoffrey Yu
Kaidance Gloyn
Trinity Yun
Katharine Rigsby
Kimberly Ong
Jonas Parsons
Laszlo Dudash
Kasia Saltwell
Jim Hanson
Carlo Deniega
Calvin Pittser
Divya Somysetty
Hailey Kim
James Young
Divisha Khanna
Tyler abolio
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Executive Director, Climb the Mountain Speech and Debate Foundation
Mr. Hanson is responsible for the instructional creation and organization of the Foundation. Mr. Hanson directs the camp.
He has been a Professor of Communication, Rhetoric and Argument and speech and debate coach for most of his life. As coach, his speech and debate team won 5 squad NDPA national championships, first place CEDA team in the nation (Jessica Clarke and Adam Symonds), first place NDT speaker (Charles Olney), and first place NPDA speaker (Miranda Morton) as well as over 1000 debate awards and 500 individual speaking events awards. Jim works had to setup the programs, instructors, judges, and instructional materials so they work best for each of our students. Email him at any time you have a question.
Jim Hanson
Adilina serves as an assistant to Jim Hanson doing data analysis, preparing teams, reviewing student results. Adilina has also worked as an instructor in LD debate and speaking events in both of which she has extensive experience. Adilina is an incredibly smart instructor that will help you see how to improve clarifying concepts and strategies effectively.
Adilina Aguirre
Aidan has competed in IPDA speech and debate during his college career, earning multiple speaker awards and breaking in most tournaments. He is an officer with the Debate Society of University of Washington, and is actively working on gaining more tournament management experience. Because of this, he plays a large role in helping new members improve at debate through creating lesson plans and also providing feedback for practice rounds.
Aidan is educated in public debate. He also has volunteered with John Muir elementary school as a speech tutor for students.
Aidan Gonzales
Beth Cole participated in collegiate CEDA debate 1987-1989 for East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. Beth won several awards including sharing a partnership of the Collegiate State Championship Debater of Tennessee in 1989. Beth became ETSU’s Director of Forensics for 1990-1993. She coached students in CEDA debate and individual speaking events to numerous awards, including a Special Coaches’ Award at Southern Connecticut University Tournament, Spring 1991 and the overall team Tennessee State Championship in Spring 1992. Beth returned to her debate roots upon retirement in fall 2021. Beth began online debate judging and has since judged hundreds of rounds of debate and individual speaking events, including Public Forum Finals for Harvard and Stanford University tournaments. Beth began judging work for Climb the Mountain in Fall 2021 and soon also began teaching elementary, middle school, and high school debate for them as well as teaching for Climb’s online camps. She truly loves teaching debate and values the life changing, transformative skills debate has to offer.
Beth Cole
Brando has been debating BP debate for a few months now at Seattle University. He has competed at a myriad of tournaments, most recently finishing as semifinalist at Steve Hunt Classic and receiving awards at several other tournaments. Brando utilizes this valuable experience for Climb.
Outside of debate he has experience working as a tutor in High School for English for younger students. He also has experience with lots of school volunteering efforts that required him to be a team leader of many younger children and micro manage them. He thinks this will help him teaching kids debate because he understands how to manage kids in a much more difficult environment than a classroom.
Brando Miller
Carlo brings interdisciplinary experience to the Climb program, having worn many different hats in his life. A recent graduate of Seattle University, he applies his BA in Communication & Media in teaching students not what to think, but how to think, giving his students an edge in debate and in life. As a longtime practitioner of martial arts holding a brown belt in Shotokan Karate, he imparts to his students the values of discipline and respect. As a theatre-trained actor with many stage, voice, and screen productions under his belt, he shows his students how the power of confidence and presentation can strengthen their arguments. Carlo doesn’t just teach students debate. He teaches students how to live successful lives and make the world a better place.
Carlo Deniega
In their debate Career, Calvin competed at over 30 tournaments, including 6 national circuit tournaments. They have broken from their sophomore year at the Stanford Invitational Tournament to the National Tournament their senior year. They have also taught novice debaters how to debate student congress and how to speak in impromptu for two years. Calvin has attended over 45 labs in their sophomore year when the requirement was 10 and in junior and senior year they attended over 70 when the requirement was 20. Calvin was a member and unofficial CEO of a lunch group at his former high school called the "Lunch Bunch" officially that ensured that no one ate lunch alone out of fear or social anxiety. Calvin also worked with multiple grades to help prevent bullying and give all students a safe space to eat, talk, and make friends. Calvin is a popular teacher working with our elementary, middle school debaters along with Congressional debaters in middle school and high school, plus our speaking events program.
Calvin Pittser
Christina took improv and acting classes in high school through Creighton University, developing confidence in public performance and communication. She also completed Intro to Speech during her freshman year and Business Communications during her sophomore year, which required her to regularly prepare and deliver speeches and presentations in front of her class.
Christina is from Omaha, Nebraska and is currently a third year marketing student at Seattle University who loves playing video games in her spare time.
Christina Joka
Divisha is an active participant in the Seattle University debate program, where they have gained valuable experience competing in various tournaments. Notably, she has won Steve Hunt and placed at other tournaments, showcasing their strong skills and strategic thinking. Her achievements reflect both dedication and a high level of debate proficiency.
She worked at an afterschool program in San Francisco, where they helped facilitate educational and recreational activities for students. Their role allowed them to develop leadership and communication skills while engaging with the community.
She successfully organized and hosted a fundraising event called "Holi for LLS" to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Through this event, she raised awareness and funds for cancer research, demonstrating their commitment to making a positive impact in the community.
Divisha Khanna
Speech Captain and had the honor of coaching many of teammates to the CHHSA State Speech & Debate Championship in 2023. She is very passionate about helping kids and teaching them about Speech. She has been tutoring students at Agoura Math Circle and loves teaching students and helping them learn new things. Divya has also taken many communication classes in high school along with taking a public speaking course in high school. She was involved in Choir all throughout high school and became Choir President at her high school.
Divya Somysetty
Eliza was in competitive debate in middle school. In high school, they were in political science classes at North Seattle Community College. They have taught summer camp classes for many summers at The Evergreen School and The Woodland Park Zoo. They have been a nanny for five years since they were thirteen. In high school they were a leader of GSA and organized events and advocated for the LGBTQ+ students are their school when the administration closed the main gender-neutral restroom. In college, they were the leader of their animal behavior research project. Eliza has taught Climb students successfully for the past year.
Eliza McConaghy
Evelyn did debate for three years in high school with the Denver School of the Arts club debate team, competing in both Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas formats. She went to state and national tournaments all three years, placing 14th in the state in her Junior year, and consistently broke in regular season tournaments. Beyond competing, Evelyn also spent her 2nd and 3rd years teaching new debaters foundational debate skills and aiding in skill development and implementation through various exercises and materials as well as real-time feedback.
Beyond speech and debate, Evelyn did significant volunteer work at Holly Hills Elementary, serving as a tutor for special needs children grades 3-5, particularly in reading and writing. In addition, in high school she frequently helped teach kids of varying ages at her local Karate dojo, aiding in martial arts instruction.
Evelyn Garrrington
Geoffrey has 3 years of high school open LD experience, competing 9 times, receiving 2 speaker awards, one top 16 placement, and one 2nd place. Geoffrey also has one complete, and one in-progress seasons of collegiate speech and debate experience, entering 5 tournaments in JV IPDA, two tournaments in open IPDA, 5 tournaments novice Impromptu & novice Extemporaneous speaking, and one tournament JV Impromptu and Extemporaneous. So far, he has received one IPDA speaker award, alongside a first-place finish at the IDPA Seattle Classic, and reached speech finals in novice impromptu and novice extemporaneous formats. Geoffrey has two years’ experience coaching high school open and Novice LD debate, and has supported novice IDPA competitors at the Debate Society of the University of Washington.
Geoffrey has coached competitive TETRIS for 3 years as the president of the University of Washington TETRIS Club, TETR.IO Amateur Weeklies, and Galactic Puzzle League. Geoffrey has also tutored math and history to first graders, and has experience with public speaking and communication through his volunteer work as a timekeeper at a Seattle City Council forum, and as a volunteer for the Victoria Hunt Senate Campaign.
Geoffrey Yu
Hailey debated for three years in high school, reaching the national speech and debate tournament all three times, as well as going on her second year of college debate, with experience in Public Forum, World Schools Debate, IPDA, and British Parliamentary. She has also captained for her high school team and has reached elimination rounds in many local tournaments.
She has worked with students for the King County Library Services StudyZone program tutoring in subjects such as math, science, and the ESL specialized program known as "Teen Talk Time". (A tutoring service geared towards ESL students to learn English speaking skills in a relaxed environment)
Hailey Kim
Ivo has been involved with the Seattle University debate team for 3 years doing mostly British Parliamentary and Impromptu. He has been at multiple tournaments, recently making it to finals in the Steve Hunt Classic hosted at Lewis and Clark College. He also has experience with judging, which he has judged all kinds of tournaments from elementary to university level, and even at YODL Nationals. At Seattle University, Ivo studies Political Science and is enrolled in Army ROTC where he hopes to be an intelligence officer.
Ivo Palazzo
James has competed at over 42 weekend-long tournaments in Lincoln Douglas (NSDA premier distinction for 1500 points), and is a two time state semifinalist (LD); two time nationals triple-octofinalist (in worlds schools debate); and has four career LD TOC bids (junior year TOC qualifier) + two bid rounds. Has received numerous speaker awards as well. Last year, he created a curriculum to teach novice teams how to debate, coaching one freshman to semifinals at an end-of-the-year local tournament (33 --> 66% prelim win rate from fall '24 to winter '25). This year, he's already coached four different first-year debaters to breaks at their first tournament in Novice LD (3x semis, 1x finals) and they are already advancing into open.
As a co-president of ECAAR—his school's Asian American advocacy club—he led an interactive workshop/presentation on AAPI issues at our local library, managing 10+ speakers and speaking to 50+ attendees for over an hour. He has also spoken at numerous local elementary schools to teach kids about Asian culture giving him experience educating a younger audience.
James Young
Jason Sanford
Jason has coached hundreds of students over the past few decades, and judged thousands of students at local, regional, national, and international tournaments. Jason won the Harvard University Public Speaking Championships and multiple Policy and Parliamentary Debate tournaments. Jason also brings extensive experience from the private industry sector, having won industry brand awards for product presentations, including CADILLAC, HYUNDAI, MINI, KIA, and FIAT. Jason has recently returned fulltime to teaching to share his passion for effective communication, advocacy, and professional discourse. Jason is ready to bring his caring and thoughtful teaching to make you an excellent communicator.
Jonas competed in speech and debate, attending 10 tournaments and earning 282 NSDA points. He qualified for Nationals in Congress. His primary events were Congress and Extemporaneous Speaking, with occasional participation in a few other events. He also helped in a visit to a middle school to demonstrate Congress speeches to younger students.
He taught aerospace and STEM curriculum to middle and early high school students through Civil Air Patrol for a year, independently developing and leading his own lessons, work that earned him a state-level award. He also taught STEM classes to young children across multiple summers of a week-long VBS program through his church.
Jonas Parsons
Kasia has been on the Seattle University debate team for one year and have judged several tournaments, and debated in several British Parlamentary tournaments, even finishing as the overall runner-up at Steve Hunt. She also has experience competing in speech events.
She has been a counselor at several summer camps. She was a rock climbing coach for one summer, and she participated in both thespies and DECA.
Kasia Saltwell
Katharine participated in Speech and Debate all four years of high school, starting with a year of speech (Poetry and Duo Interpretation) and then Lincoln-Douglas Debate for three years. She attended around 5 tournaments per semester, and in addition she participated in and judged weekly practice debates. Her senior year, she was captain of Lincoln-Douglas Debate and helped judge novice tournaments and coach novices.
Katharine is new to coaching debate, and has helped at summer camps at Children's Music Academy in Colorado where children attend after school music programs throughout the school year and day-camps in the summer.
Katharine Rigsby
Kimberly has debated for 6 years across Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Parliamentary debate. She has served as Debate Captain at her high school for the past 2 years, competed in numerous tournaments, and coached British Parliamentary debate over the summer. Since 7th grade, she has also been a part of Climb the Mountain.
Kimberly has coached at a debate summer camp to help students learn British Parliamentary and basic debate skills. She has also led her high school debate team through debate skills and prepares them for competition, growing the team from 5 to over 20 competitive teams.
Kimberly Ong
Laszlo, an alum of Climb, has done debate since middle school in LD, PF, and Parliamentary for Climb the Mountain and Eastlake Speech and Debate. He was recently accepted into UW Speech and Debate (less than an 8% acceptance rate) and is training in IPDA. He has won numerous speaker awards and has broken or placed first in tournaments. He also taught LD last year at Eastlake as a club officer and ran the club socials and team communication.
He is taking a rhetoric class in his first quarter at UW and has taken Public Speaking at Eastlake as well as many AP Social Studies and Government classes. He volunteered for a youth mental health hotline, which trained him in youth mentorship. He was the unofficial "manager of the teen shift" at Hopelink and managed teen volunteers. He has extensive political internship and volunteer experience, including a leadership role running statewide phone banking for the Manka Dhingra for Attorney General campaign. He studied abroad in Morocco to learn Arabic and has significant knowledge in debate-relevant topics often neglected in prep.
Laszlo Dubash
Loraina has been actively involved in college debate for three years, and participated in mock trial for three years during high school. Through these experiences, Loraina has developed strong public speaking, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. Loraina has earned multiple debate awards, including a quarterfinalist award at the YODL National Championships. She also has been awarded top speaker in IPDA.
Loraina has extensive teaching experience from helping my mom each summer work with children who have Down syndrome and autism, where she learned to adapt lessons with patience and care. As Engineering Club President, she also taught coding and robotics to middle school students, guiding them through building small-scale robots. These experiences strengthened her ability to communicate clearly and teach complex ideas in an engaging, accessible way.
She gained organizational and outreach experience through volunteer work as a Key Club leader, where she organized food drives and coordinated local park clean-up events. These roles allowed her to make a positive impact in the community.
Loraina Brady
Lyd Haindfield has been with Climb the Mountain since 2021. They debated for seven years throughout high school and college, competing in over 70 tournaments. In high school, they served as debate captain, qualified for Nationals and the Tournament of Champions (TOC), competed in Public Forum and speech events, and earned over 23 awards. They also ranked among Washington’s top five debaters in Fall 2019 and received the National Speech & Debate Association’s Premier Distinction.
At Western Washington University, Lyd served as student director and competed in Cross-Examination and CARD debate. They qualified for the National Debate Tournament (NDT), reached the doubles elimination round at CEDA Nationals, and went undefeated at Big Tent 2022. Beyond competition, Lyd was deeply involved with Beyond Resolved and the Women’s Debate Institute, organizations dedicated to fostering a safer, more inclusive debate community.
Lyd earned their BA in Political Science with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Western Washington University before receiving their Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law in 2026. During law school, they competed in mock trial all three years, won Seattle University’s mock trial competition in Fall 2025, and competed at regional championships in Winter 2026. They also coached a mock trial team to a tournament victory.
Lyd continues to judge speech and debate tournaments, coach students across speech and debate events, and run tabulation at tournaments. They enjoy staying connected to the debate community and helping students grow as people, competitors and speakers.
Lyd Haindfield
Associate Director
Parker has been working with Climb in a multitude of capacities since 2019, starting as a debate instructor and now serving as the Associate Director. Parker is an experienced debate coach and adjudicator at all levels from elementary through university, routinely serving as a guest coach and a consultant for universities such as the University of Hawai'i, Lewis & Clark College, Willamette University, and Howard Payne University. They have also been an assistant coach with the Seattle University Debate Union since 2020, helping the team secure multiple tournament titles and hundreds of awards across the Northwest and nationally. Parker is also routinely asked to serve as a chief adjudicator or a featured adjudicator at tournaments hosted by universities such as Harvard, UC Berkeley, USC, and Penn. At younger levels, Parker is an experienced coach, teaching teams in parliamentary, world schools, and public forum formats, as well as speaking events.
In the realm of tournaments, Parker has served as a chief adjudicator, organizer, or tabulator at countless tournaments, including the majority of Climb's own tournaments over the last several years. Parker also has taught public speaking at the university level with Ball State University.
As a competitor with the Seattle University Debate Union, Parker received numerous speaking and debating awards across the United States & Canada, reaching outrounds in a supermajority of tournaments they competed in and a plethora of finals rounds in Worlds and IPDA formats. They graduated in 2020 with their BA in Political Science cum laude and are completing their MA in Communication Studies at Arizona State University.
Parker Davidson
Pepper has 4 years of high school debate, 3 years in Lincoln Douglas, 1 year in policy, and a few tournaments in public forum, as well as a year of college debate doing IPDA and British parliamentary debate. They did 1 year of high school speech including Impromptu, Informative and Poetry slam. They also have 2 years of judging experience in Lincoln Douglas, public forum, policy debate and Speech. Pepper has won multiple awards in college including winning the Linfield Northwest Forensics Conference BP Division and top 10 speaker at the Climb Spring Championship.
Pepper Berry
Samira has done collegiate debate participating in the Climb Team IPDA tournament and has judged at the May 21st debate tournament hosted at Seattle U: judged elementary school students. She was an officer of the student government at Shoreline Community College. During her term, she sat on administrative committees such as the budget committee (managed the entire school's budget) and the presidential search committee (which led a nation-wide search of the next president of the college). She was the president of her Collegiate DECA charter from 2021-22, advanced to state with second place and nationals and won a medal from the event. From these experiences, she has developed her public speaking and presentation skills. Samira is ready to teach you to grow as a speaker and debater.
Samira Jamaale
Semaj is a communications major at Seattle University and is well-versed in public speaking education.During Semaj's undergraduate years, she was a facilitator for the Wellness and Health Promotion at Seattle University. Her job was to facilitate meetings and seminars that focused on the concepts of mental and physical health and wellness, while also educating students on the importance of healthy habits during undergraduate school.
Semaj Gales
Sean helped begin our Climb program at Jing Mei school in Bellevue helping elementary school debaters engage in debate for the first time. While working towards earning a black belt, Sam aided the instructors in teaching kids' discipline, respect, and self-control. Sean completed a public speaking class in college that has greatly influenced his communication skills. He also has a lot of babysitting experience ranging from taking care of 8- to 12-year-olds. Sean is also an IRS certified tax assistant providing intake and currently volunteering as a front desk greet man at a hope link establishment helping people with their tax returns. In the past Sean has volunteered with multiple groups like the "Feed My Starving Children" where he would prepare dry meals that were sent to developing countries around the world. And a few months ago, he volunteered at Foundation Fighting Blindness, where I helped kids write their names and other words in braille. Sean is ready to bring teaching and speaking experience along with debate instructional skills to help you achieve your goals.
Sean Haggerty
Stacy's coaching experience spans ten years with the Pacific NW Middle School Debate League. Initially connected with California programs, the Seattle league later developed its own three-on-three parliamentary debate guidelines due to growth and local preference. Stacy helped document these rules, served as a tournament coordinator for over five years, and co-led the league as co-president. Her teams have earned numerous awards at Seattle events, and she has hosted tournaments for other schools. For over thirty years, Stacy has taught English to native speakers and language learners, focusing on reading comprehension and writing. She incorporates debate in her academic classes to build public speaking skills and explore literature. Stacy has led electives in music, theater, and debate, and supported student travel to events like regional debate tournaments, ski trips, and white-water rafting. She has also held leadership roles in nonprofits, including managing at the Seattle Children's Museum. At Climb, Stacy is a lead instructor and co-manages several programs, including the Seattle University tournament.
Stacy Bell
Since joining her middle school's speech and debate club in 7th grade, Trinity has competed in parliamentary debate, Lincoln Douglas debate, Policy debate, Original Oratory, and Impromptu speech events. She is the head coach of Tyee's speech and debate club, with students who have won numerous top awards at Northwest Middle School Debate League tournaments. She is also currently the Head Tournament Coordinator of her high school's speech and debate club, where she manages all tournament registration for a club with over 150 members. Trinity is also a member of the Northwest Middle School Debate League's Topic Committee and has judged a several middle school tournaments.
Trinity has shared her passion for music through one-on-one instruction on the piano and violin and interning at Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra's Summer Music camp. Trinity is also currently a head coach of Tyee's Future Problem Solving club with over 100 members, with students who have won top awards at both the state and international levels.
Trinity Yun
Tyler Zabolio has been in the world of competitive debate for over seven years. In high school, he competed at both the state and national levels in impromptu speaking, extemporaneous speaking, and Public Forum debate. The NSDA ranked him a top 50 Impromptu speaker as well as a top 50 ranked Public Forum debater in Washington State his junior and senior years. Tyler is now on the policy debate team at Gonzaga University and gets to travel all around the country debating! He is in his Junior year at GU, majoring in Business Administration with a focus in Public Law and Policy. Tyler is also working towards minors in both Political Science and Leadership. He has three years of debate coaching experience and loves to work with kids. In his lessons, students will work on critically engaging with arguments to reach the deepest levels of understanding.
Tyler Zabolio
Executive Director, Climb the Mountain Speech and Debate Foundation
Mr. Hanson is responsible for the instructional creation and organization of the Foundation. Mr. Hanson directs the camp.
He has been a Professor of Communication, Rhetoric and Argument and speech and debate coach for most of his life. As coach, his speech and debate team won 5 squad NDPA national championships, first place CEDA team in the nation (Jessica Clarke and Adam Symonds), first place NDT speaker (Charles Olney), and first place NPDA speaker (Miranda Morton) as well as over 1000 debate awards and 500 individual speaking events awards. Jim works had to setup the programs, instructors, judges, and instructional materials so they work best for each of our students. Email him at any time you have a question.
Jim Hanson
Adilina serves as an assistant to Jim Hanson doing data analysis, preparing teams, reviewing student results. Adilina has also worked as an instructor in LD debate and speaking events in both of which she has extensive experience. Adilina is an incredibly smart instructor that will help you see how to improve clarifying concepts and strategies effectively.
Adilina Aguirre
Aidan has competed in IPDA speech and debate during his college career, earning multiple speaker awards and breaking in most tournaments. He is an officer with the Debate Society of University of Washington, and is actively working on gaining more tournament management experience. Because of this, he plays a large role in helping new members improve at debate through creating lesson plans and also providing feedback for practice rounds.
Aidan is educated in public debate. He also has volunteered with John Muir elementary school as a speech tutor for students.
Aidan Gonzales
Beth Cole participated in collegiate CEDA debate 1987-1989 for East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. Beth won several awards including sharing a partnership of the Collegiate State Championship Debater of Tennessee in 1989. Beth became ETSU’s Director of Forensics for 1990-1993. She coached students in CEDA debate and individual speaking events to numerous awards, including a Special Coaches’ Award at Southern Connecticut University Tournament, Spring 1991 and the overall team Tennessee State Championship in Spring 1992. Beth returned to her debate roots upon retirement in fall 2021. Beth began online debate judging and has since judged hundreds of rounds of debate and individual speaking events, including Public Forum Finals for Harvard and Stanford University tournaments. Beth began judging work for Climb the Mountain in Fall 2021 and soon also began teaching elementary, middle school, and high school debate for them as well as teaching for Climb’s online camps. She truly loves teaching debate and values the life changing, transformative skills debate has to offer.
Beth Cole
Brando has been debating BP debate for a few months now at Seattle University. He has competed at a myriad of tournaments, most recently finishing as semifinalist at Steve Hunt Classic and receiving awards at several other tournaments. Brando utilizes this valuable experience for Climb.
Outside of debate he has experience working as a tutor in High School for English for younger students. He also has experience with lots of school volunteering efforts that required him to be a team leader of many younger children and micro manage them. He thinks this will help him teaching kids debate because he understands how to manage kids in a much more difficult environment than a classroom.
Brando Miller
Carlo brings interdisciplinary experience to the Climb program, having worn many different hats in his life. A recent graduate of Seattle University, he applies his BA in Communication & Media in teaching students not what to think, but how to think, giving his students an edge in debate and in life. As a longtime practitioner of martial arts holding a brown belt in Shotokan Karate, he imparts to his students the values of discipline and respect. As a theatre-trained actor with many stage, voice, and screen productions under his belt, he shows his students how the power of confidence and presentation can strengthen their arguments. Carlo doesn’t just teach students debate. He teaches students how to live successful lives and make the world a better place.
Carlo Deniega
In their debate Career, Calvin competed at over 30 tournaments, including 6 national circuit tournaments. They have broken from their sophomore year at the Stanford Invitational Tournament to the National Tournament their senior year. They have also taught novice debaters how to debate student congress and how to speak in impromptu for two years. Calvin has attended over 45 labs in their sophomore year when the requirement was 10 and in junior and senior year they attended over 70 when the requirement was 20. Calvin was a member and unofficial CEO of a lunch group at his former high school called the "Lunch Bunch" officially that ensured that no one ate lunch alone out of fear or social anxiety. Calvin also worked with multiple grades to help prevent bullying and give all students a safe space to eat, talk, and make friends. Calvin is a popular teacher working with our elementary, middle school debaters along with Congressional debaters in middle school and high school, plus our speaking events program.
Calvin Pittser
Christina took improv and acting classes in high school through Creighton University, developing confidence in public performance and communication. She also completed Intro to Speech during her freshman year and Business Communications during her sophomore year, which required her to regularly prepare and deliver speeches and presentations in front of her class.
Christina is from Omaha, Nebraska and is currently a third year marketing student at Seattle University who loves playing video games in her spare time.
Christina Joka
Divisha is an active participant in the Seattle University debate program, where they have gained valuable experience competing in various tournaments. Notably, she has won Steve Hunt and placed at other tournaments, showcasing their strong skills and strategic thinking. Her achievements reflect both dedication and a high level of debate proficiency.
She worked at an afterschool program in San Francisco, where they helped facilitate educational and recreational activities for students. Their role allowed them to develop leadership and communication skills while engaging with the community.
She successfully organized and hosted a fundraising event called "Holi for LLS" to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Through this event, she raised awareness and funds for cancer research, demonstrating their commitment to making a positive impact in the community.
Divisha Khanna
Speech Captain and had the honor of coaching many of teammates to the CHHSA State Speech & Debate Championship in 2023. She is very passionate about helping kids and teaching them about Speech. She has been tutoring students at Agoura Math Circle and loves teaching students and helping them learn new things. Divya has also taken many communication classes in high school along with taking a public speaking course in high school. She was involved in Choir all throughout high school and became Choir President at her high school.
Divya Somysetty
Eliza was in competitive debate in middle school. In high school, they were in political science classes at North Seattle Community College. They have taught summer camp classes for many summers at The Evergreen School and The Woodland Park Zoo. They have been a nanny for five years since they were thirteen. In high school they were a leader of GSA and organized events and advocated for the LGBTQ+ students are their school when the administration closed the main gender-neutral restroom. In college, they were the leader of their animal behavior research project. Eliza has taught Climb students successfully for the past year.
Eliza McConaghy
Evelyn did debate for three years in high school with the Denver School of the Arts club debate team, competing in both Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas formats. She went to state and national tournaments all three years, placing 14th in the state in her Junior year, and consistently broke in regular season tournaments. Beyond competing, Evelyn also spent her 2nd and 3rd years teaching new debaters foundational debate skills and aiding in skill development and implementation through various exercises and materials as well as real-time feedback.
Beyond speech and debate, Evelyn did significant volunteer work at Holly Hills Elementary, serving as a tutor for special needs children grades 3-5, particularly in reading and writing. In addition, in high school she frequently helped teach kids of varying ages at her local Karate dojo, aiding in martial arts instruction.
Evelyn Garrington
Geoffrey has 3 years of high school open LD experience, competing 9 times, receiving 2 speaker awards, one top 16 placement, and one 2nd place. Geoffrey also has one complete, and one in-progress seasons of collegiate speech and debate experience, entering 5 tournaments in JV IPDA, two tournaments in open IPDA, 5 tournaments novice Impromptu & novice Extemporaneous speaking, and one tournament JV Impromptu and Extemporaneous. So far, he has received one IPDA speaker award, alongside a first-place finish at the IDPA Seattle Classic, and reached speech finals in novice impromptu and novice extemporaneous formats. Geoffrey has two years’ experience coaching high school open and Novice LD debate, and has supported novice IDPA competitors at the Debate Society of the University of Washington.
Geoffrey has coached competitive TETRIS for 3 years as the president of the University of Washington TETRIS Club, TETR.IO Amateur Weeklies, and Galactic Puzzle League. Geoffrey has also tutored math and history to first graders, and has experience with public speaking and communication through his volunteer work as a timekeeper at a Seattle City Council forum, and as a volunteer for the Victoria Hunt Senate Campaign.
Geoffrey Yu
Hailey debated for three years in high school, reaching the national speech and debate tournament all three times, as well as going on her second year of college debate, with experience in Public Forum, World Schools Debate, IPDA, and British Parliamentary. She has also captained for her high school team and has reached elimination rounds in many local tournaments.
She has worked with students for the King County Library Services StudyZone program tutoring in subjects such as math, science, and the ESL specialized program known as "Teen Talk Time". (A tutoring service geared towards ESL students to learn English speaking skills in a relaxed environment)
Hailey Kim
Ivo has been involved with the Seattle University debate team for 3 years doing mostly British Parliamentary and Impromptu. He has been at multiple tournaments, recently making it to finals in the Steve Hunt Classic hosted at Lewis and Clark College. He also has experience with judging, which he has judged all kinds of tournaments from elementary to university level, and even at YODL Nationals. At Seattle University, Ivo studies Political Science and is enrolled in Army ROTC where he hopes to be an intelligence officer.
Ivo Palazzo
James has competed at over 42 weekend-long tournaments in Lincoln Douglas (NSDA premier distinction for 1500 points), and is a two time state semifinalist (LD); two time nationals triple-octofinalist (in worlds schools debate); and has four career LD TOC bids (junior year TOC qualifier) + two bid rounds. Has received numerous speaker awards as well. Last year, he created a curriculum to teach novice teams how to debate, coaching one freshman to semifinals at an end-of-the-year local tournament (33 --> 66% prelim win rate from fall '24 to winter '25). This year, he's already coached four different first-year debaters to breaks at their first tournament in Novice LD (3x semis, 1x finals) and they are already advancing into open.
As a co-president of ECAAR—his school's Asian American advocacy club—he led an interactive workshop/presentation on AAPI issues at our local library, managing 10+ speakers and speaking to 50+ attendees for over an hour. He has also spoken at numerous local elementary schools to teach kids about Asian culture giving him experience educating a younger audience.
James Young
Jason Sanford
Jason has coached hundreds of students over the past few decades, and judged thousands of students at local, regional, national, and international tournaments. Jason won the Harvard University Public Speaking Championships and multiple Policy and Parliamentary Debate tournaments. Jason also brings extensive experience from the private industry sector, having won industry brand awards for product presentations, including CADILLAC, HYUNDAI, MINI, KIA, and FIAT. Jason has recently returned fulltime to teaching to share his passion for effective communication, advocacy, and professional discourse. Jason is ready to bring his caring and thoughtful teaching to make you an excellent communicator.
Jonas competed in speech and debate, attending 10 tournaments and earning 282 NSDA points. He qualified for Nationals in Congress. His primary events were Congress and Extemporaneous Speaking, with occasional participation in a few other events. He also helped in a visit to a middle school to demonstrate Congress speeches to younger students.
He taught aerospace and STEM curriculum to middle and early high school students through Civil Air Patrol for a year, independently developing and leading his own lessons, work that earned him a state-level award. He also taught STEM classes to young children across multiple summers of a week-long VBS program through his church.
Jonas Parsons
Kasia has been on the Seattle University debate team for one year and have judged several tournaments, and debated in several British Parlamentary tournaments, even finishing as the overall runner-up at Steve Hunt. She also has experience competing in speech events.
She has been a counselor at several summer camps. She was a rock climbing coach for one summer, and she participated in both thespies and DECA.
Kasia Saltwell
Katharine participated in Speech and Debate all four years of high school, starting with a year of speech (Poetry and Duo Interpretation) and then Lincoln-Douglas Debate for three years. She attended around 5 tournaments per semester, and in addition she participated in and judged weekly practice debates. Her senior year, she was captain of Lincoln-Douglas Debate and helped judge novice tournaments and coach novices.
Katharine is new to coaching debate, and has helped at summer camps at Children's Music Academy in Colorado where children attend after school music programs throughout the school year and day-camps in the summer.
Katharine Rigsby
Kimberly has debated for 6 years across Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Parliamentary debate. She has served as Debate Captain at her high school for the past 2 years, competed in numerous tournaments, and coached British Parliamentary debate over the summer. Since 7th grade, she has also been a part of Climb the Mountain.
Kimberly has coached at a debate summer camp to help students learn British Parliamentary and basic debate skills. She has also led her high school debate team through debate skills and prepares them for competition, growing the team from 5 to over 20 competitive teams.
Kimberly Ong
Laszlo, an alum of Climb, has done debate since middle school in LD, PF, and Parliamentary for Climb the Mountain and Eastlake Speech and Debate. He was recently accepted into UW Speech and Debate (less than an 8% acceptance rate) and is training in IPDA. He has won numerous speaker awards and has broken or placed first in tournaments. He also taught LD last year at Eastlake as a club officer and ran the club socials and team communication.
He is taking a rhetoric class in his first quarter at UW and has taken Public Speaking at Eastlake as well as many AP Social Studies and Government classes. He volunteered for a youth mental health hotline, which trained him in youth mentorship. He was the unofficial "manager of the teen shift" at Hopelink and managed teen volunteers. He has extensive political internship and volunteer experience, including a leadership role running statewide phone banking for the Manka Dhingra for Attorney General campaign. He studied abroad in Morocco to learn Arabic and has significant knowledge in debate-relevant topics often neglected in prep.
Laszlo Dudash
Loraina has been actively involved in college debate for three years, and participated in mock trial for three years during high school. Through these experiences, Loraina has developed strong public speaking, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. Loraina has earned multiple debate awards, including a quarterfinalist award at the YODL National Championships. She also has been awarded top speaker in IPDA.
Loraina has extensive teaching experience from helping my mom each summer work with children who have Down syndrome and autism, where she learned to adapt lessons with patience and care. As Engineering Club President, she also taught coding and robotics to middle school students, guiding them through building small-scale robots. These experiences strengthened her ability to communicate clearly and teach complex ideas in an engaging, accessible way.
She gained organizational and outreach experience through volunteer work as a Key Club leader, where she organized food drives and coordinated local park clean-up events. These roles allowed her to make a positive impact in the community.
Loraina Brady
Lyd Haindfield has been with Climb the Mountain since 2021. They debated for seven years throughout high school and college, competing in over 70 tournaments. In high school, they served as debate captain, qualified for Nationals and the Tournament of Champions (TOC), competed in Public Forum and speech events, and earned over 23 awards. They also ranked among Washington’s top five debaters in Fall 2019 and received the National Speech & Debate Association’s Premier Distinction.
At Western Washington University, Lyd served as student director and competed in Cross-Examination and CARD debate. They qualified for the National Debate Tournament (NDT), reached the doubles elimination round at CEDA Nationals, and went undefeated at Big Tent 2022. Beyond competition, Lyd was deeply involved with Beyond Resolved and the Women’s Debate Institute, organizations dedicated to fostering a safer, more inclusive debate community.
Lyd earned their BA in Political Science with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Western Washington University before receiving their Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law in 2026. During law school, they competed in mock trial all three years, won Seattle University’s mock trial competition in Fall 2025, and competed at regional championships in Winter 2026. They also coached a mock trial team to a tournament victory.
Lyd continues to judge speech and debate tournaments, coach students across speech and debate events, and run tabulation at tournaments. They enjoy staying connected to the debate community and helping students grow as people, competitors and speakers.
Lyd Haindfield
Associate Director
Parker has been working with Climb in a multitude of capacities since 2019, starting as a debate instructor and now serving as the Associate Director. Parker is an experienced debate coach and adjudicator at all levels from elementary through university, routinely serving as a guest coach and a consultant for universities such as the University of Hawai'i, Lewis & Clark College, Willamette University, and Howard Payne University. They have also been an assistant coach with the Seattle University Debate Union since 2020, helping the team secure multiple tournament titles and hundreds of awards across the Northwest and nationally. Parker is also routinely asked to serve as a chief adjudicator or a featured adjudicator at tournaments hosted by universities such as Harvard, UC Berkeley, USC, and Penn. At younger levels, Parker is an experienced coach, teaching teams in parliamentary, world schools, and public forum formats, as well as speaking events.
In the realm of tournaments, Parker has served as a chief adjudicator, organizer, or tabulator at countless tournaments, including the majority of Climb's own tournaments over the last several years. Parker also has taught public speaking at the university level with Ball State University.
As a competitor with the Seattle University Debate Union, Parker received numerous speaking and debating awards across the United States & Canada, reaching outrounds in a supermajority of tournaments they competed in and a plethora of finals rounds in Worlds and IPDA formats. They graduated in 2020 with their BA in Political Science cum laude and are completing their MA in Communication Studies at Arizona State University.
Parker Davidson
Pepper has 4 years of high school debate, 3 years in Lincoln Douglas, 1 year in policy, and a few tournaments in public forum, as well as a year of college debate doing IPDA and British parliamentary debate. They did 1 year of high school speech including Impromptu, Informative and Poetry slam. They also have 2 years of judging experience in Lincoln Douglas, public forum, policy debate and Speech. Pepper has won multiple awards in college including winning the Linfield Northwest Forensics Conference BP Division and top 10 speaker at the Climb Spring Championship.
Pepper Berry
Samira has done collegiate debate participating in the Climb Team IPDA tournament and has judged at the May 21st debate tournament hosted at Seattle U: judged elementary school students. She was an officer of the student government at Shoreline Community College. During her term, she sat on administrative committees such as the budget committee (managed the entire school's budget) and the presidential search committee (which led a nation-wide search of the next president of the college). She was the president of her Collegiate DECA charter from 2021-22, advanced to state with second place and nationals and won a medal from the event. From these experiences, she has developed her public speaking and presentation skills. Samira is ready to teach you to grow as a speaker and debater.
Samira Jamaale
Semaj is a communications major at Seattle University and is well-versed in public speaking education.During Semaj's undergraduate years, she was a facilitator for the Wellness and Health Promotion at Seattle University. Her job was to facilitate meetings and seminars that focused on the concepts of mental and physical health and wellness, while also educating students on the importance of healthy habits during undergraduate school.
Semaj Gales
Sean helped begin our Climb program at Jing Mei school in Bellevue helping elementary school debaters engage in debate for the first time. While working towards earning a black belt, Sam aided the instructors in teaching kids' discipline, respect, and self-control. Sean completed a public speaking class in college that has greatly influenced his communication skills. He also has a lot of babysitting experience ranging from taking care of 8- to 12-year-olds. Sean is also an IRS certified tax assistant providing intake and currently volunteering as a front desk greet man at a hope link establishment helping people with their tax returns. In the past Sean has volunteered with multiple groups like the "Feed My Starving Children" where he would prepare dry meals that were sent to developing countries around the world. And a few months ago, he volunteered at Foundation Fighting Blindness, where I helped kids write their names and other words in braille. Sean is ready to bring teaching and speaking experience along with debate instructional skills to help you achieve your goals.
Sean Haggerty
Stacy's coaching experience spans ten years with the Pacific NW Middle School Debate League. Initially connected with California programs, the Seattle league later developed its own three-on-three parliamentary debate guidelines due to growth and local preference. Stacy helped document these rules, served as a tournament coordinator for over five years, and co-led the league as co-president. Her teams have earned numerous awards at Seattle events, and she has hosted tournaments for other schools. For over thirty years, Stacy has taught English to native speakers and language learners, focusing on reading comprehension and writing. She incorporates debate in her academic classes to build public speaking skills and explore literature. Stacy has led electives in music, theater, and debate, and supported student travel to events like regional debate tournaments, ski trips, and white-water rafting. She has also held leadership roles in nonprofits, including managing at the Seattle Children's Museum. At Climb, Stacy is a lead instructor and co-manages several programs, including the Seattle University tournament.
Stacy Bell
Since joining her middle school's speech and debate club in 7th grade, Trinity has competed in parliamentary debate, Lincoln Douglas debate, Policy debate, Original Oratory, and Impromptu speech events. She is the head coach of Tyee's speech and debate club, with students who have won numerous top awards at Northwest Middle School Debate League tournaments. She is also currently the Head Tournament Coordinator of her high school's speech and debate club, where she manages all tournament registration for a club with over 150 members. Trinity is also a member of the Northwest Middle School Debate League's Topic Committee and has judged a several middle school tournaments.
Trinity has shared her passion for music through one-on-one instruction on the piano and violin and interning at Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra's Summer Music camp. Trinity is also currently a head coach of Tyee's Future Problem Solving club with over 100 members, with students who have won top awards at both the state and international levels.
Trinity Yun
Tyler Zabolio has been in the world of competitive debate for over seven years. In high school, he competed at both the state and national levels in impromptu speaking, extemporaneous speaking, and Public Forum debate. The NSDA ranked him a top 50 Impromptu speaker as well as a top 50 ranked Public Forum debater in Washington State his junior and senior years. Tyler is now on the policy debate team at Gonzaga University and gets to travel all around the country debating! He is in his Junior year at GU, majoring in Business Administration with a focus in Public Law and Policy. Tyler is also working towards minors in both Political Science and Leadership. He has three years of debate coaching experience and loves to work with kids. In his lessons, students will work on critically engaging with arguments to reach the deepest levels of understanding.
Tyler Zabolio
