Lincoln Douglas Debate
Faculty & Staff

Aaron Timmons, LD Debate Director

Aaron W. Timmons is the Director of Debate at Greenhill School. A former President of the Texas Forensic Association, Mr. Timmons has published several educational publications and is a frequent presenter of workshops on debate pedagogy both in Texas, and across the United States. In 2000, Mr. Timmons was listed as one of the top coaches of the 20th century. Mr. Timmons has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the National Forensic League, the Texas Forensic Association and the Tournament of Champions. Mr. Timmons is one of only three coaches in the history of the National Forensic League to win National Championships in policy debate and Lincoln - Douglas Debate, and the only coach to have multiple champions in both divisions. He has also coached the top speaker in policy and Lincoln - Douglas debate, as well as champions in both formats, at the Tournament of Champions. Mr. Timmons has worked at debate workshops for thirty years as an instructor, and has served as the Director of the Mean Green Lincoln - Douglas workshops since 2005.

2013 Lab Instructors
(Tentative - More Announcements Coming Soon!)

Jonathan Alston

Jonathan is a high school English teacher and the Lincoln-Douglas debate coach for Newark Science Park High School in New Jersey. He graduated from Yale University. He has coached seven N.J. State Champions and has had debaters make it to late elimination rounds at Stanford, Emory, Greenhill, Wake Forest, Harvard, St. Marks and the Tournament of Champions, among others, in his eighteen years as a coach. Jonathan is a gifted lecturer and teacher, consistently getting the highest evaluations from his lab students year after year. In addition, Jonathan has been highly requested by coaches to work with their students to get them to maximize their potential. His attention to detail, diversity of teaching methods and the ability to instill both confidence and improved skills into transitioning younger students is second to none. Jonathan personifies excellence and professionalism in his approach to educating any student he has the opportunity to work with.

Bekah Boyer

Bekah debated at Colleyville Heritage in Texas for four years, in both the Policy and Lincoln Douglas divisions. She served as LD Captain during her senior year, making outrounds of many prestigious tournaments, culminating by placing in the top 16 at the Texas State Tournament. Her commitment to debate stretched the gap between competition and education/organization: she assisted in teaching the Colleyville novice camp for 3 years, and during her time at CHHS, she helped organize the Colleyville Winter Invitational. Her other High School activities included theater (both stage management and performance), International Thespian Honor Society, National Honor Society, and a heavy load of AP classes. While Bekah's high school competition radius was limited due to her academic juggling act, she continues her participation in the community past her 2009 graduation date by judging on both the national and local circuits. From 2009-2010 she served as assistant coach at her alma mater; as of October 2010, she coaches at Greenhill School, specializing in baked goods and LD. When not at debate tournaments or at the Hill, she attends Southern Methodist University where she is double majoring in Art History and Women's Studies and manages several activist organizations.

Robbie Dillard

Robbie debated LD for 4 years at Northland Christian School. He qualified to the TFA state tournament twice and TOC his senior year. Over his career, he had much success with bids at Greenhill and St. Marks and multiple bid rounds such as Lexington, VBT and the Sunvitational. He also finished in the top 16 at TFA state. He attended several round robins including the Greenhill Round Robin, Lexington Round Robin, Vassar Round Robin, and the Kandi King Round Robin. Robbie returned to Northland to coach and has already qualified 2 debaters to the TOC in his first year of coaching. He was a lab leader at the Victory Briefs Institute last year and will be joining us for his first time this year at UNT. He is currently studying Business Administration at the University of Texas at Austin.

Chetan Hertzig

Rebecca Kuang

Rebecca Kuang debated for three years at the Greenhill School in Texas. She is auto-qualified to the 2013 TOC after clearing at the 2012 TOC as a junior. She has cleared twice at TFA state. As a junior, she reached elimination rounds at Bronx, Harvard, Apple Valley, Meadows, Emory, and the TOC, and competed at the Greenhill Round Robin, the Harvard Round Robin, the Hockaday Round Robin, and the Kandi King Round Robin. This year thus far, she has reached finals of the Greenhill Round Robin and the Bronx Round Robin, placed third at the Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin, and was the champion of the Bronx Invitational, the Glenbrooks, The Barkley Forum for High Schools (Emory) and the Harvard Round Robin. She has won a top ten speaker award at every tournament she has attended this year, and was top speaker at the Greenhill Round Robin and the Harvard Round Robin.

Why UNT was a good option for me as a student:

I think that UNT is unique in that it focuses on the students. It's easy to just become another face in the back of the lecture hall, but the UNT staff always made sure that I was improving as a debater. The UNT curriculum is incredibly deep and thorough; the faculty makes sure that students have a solid understanding of debate concepts, instead of just latching onto the latest fads.

Morgan Lawson

Eric Melin

Mr. Melin is the Director of Debate at The Hockaday School in Dallas. His students have advanced to the late elimination rounds of virtually every major tournament in the nation and across multiple events, including LD, PF, Congress, and Extemp. Eric previously coached at Southlake Carroll and Grapevine High Schools.

As an LD debater for Grapevine High School, Eric won the Greenhill Fall Classic and the TFA State Tournament, was a semi-finalist St. Mark's Heart of Texas Invitational, and was runner-up at the New York City Invitational (Big Bronx XXVI) and at the Bronx Round Robin. He tied for second in ballots at the MBA Round Robin and competed in out-rounds at Emory University's Barkley Forum for High Schools, The Glenbrooks and Isidore Newman tournaments. He also won the inaugural Colleyville Heritage Tournament. Eric was seventh at NFL Nationals as a junior and had a winning record at the Tournament of Champions both his junior and senior years before being eliminated in quarterfinals as a senior. Eric has worked at a number of national-level LD institutes, and he is a highly preferred critic on the national circuit.

Courtney Nunley

Dr. Robinson has over a decade of LD coaching experience both in Texas and on the national circuit. As a competitor for Duncanville High School he cleared to elimination rounds at the TFA state tournament and the NFL national tournament, as well as qualifying for the 5A division of the UIL state tournament. In the time that Dr. Robinson worked toward his undergraduate degree (eventually a B.A. in Government and Politics - summa cum laude) at the University of Texas, Dallas, he was also an assistant coach in LD debate at Newman Smith High School, where his students had remarkable success locally and nationally. Their accomplishments include two individual debaters both in semi-finals of TFA state in one year, teams in late elimination rounds at Emory, St. Marks, and the NFL National tournament, as well as champion of the first Greenhill Round Robin. Dr. Robinson's students were also invited to multiple other national round robins including Bronx Science, MBA, and the Gulf Coast round robins.

Dr. Robinson taught at the Kentucky National Debate Institute LD workshop from 1997-2002 and 2004. In various years he served as both the LD fellow's program coordinator and as the coordinator for the Kentucky novice program. In these years his lab students have gone on to win Greenhill, St. Marks, Glenbrooks, Emory, Harvard, the TOC and the NFL National tournament. In this time he has also written a series of textbooks on LD debate practice and argumentation for Paradigm Research, Inc. He was a contributor to the Paradigm LD Topic Analysis from 1997-2002. He also wrote the LD Positions series of philosophy texts (6 volumes, each in two editions), the LD Roadguide textbook (also in two editions), and Coaching for Success in LD Debate. Most recently he co-authored a pair of articles for The Rostrum on teaching LD research skills. All told he has over a million words in print on the subject of LD debate.

In 1997, Scott Robinson moved to Texas A&M University to complete a PhD in Political Science (completed in 2001). He has subsequently become an award winning teacher at Rice University, the University of Texas - Dallas, and Texas A&M University. The regularly teaches courses on public leadership and management. His original research on education policy. presidential politics, and disaster/emergency management has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Public Manager, Public Performance and Management Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Review of Policy Research, and Presidential Studies Quarterly (as well in chapters in several edited volumes). His current research at the Bush School for Government and Public Service focuses on the mobilization of nonprofit organization and charities to assist in disaster preparedness and response.

Dr. Robinson brings unparalleled expertise in empirical social research to the Mean Green Debate Institute. In addition to his expertise on social and political theory, Dr. Robinson has the advantage of being an active researcher able to share with students the most cutting edge theories of social and political change.