Our Staff.

Eesha has a lot of experience coaching both novices and experienced debaters, helping them achieve success on the local, state, and national level. She is the coach of her local Urban Debate League, where she mentors novice debaters and teaches them speaking and communication skills. She also has been Captain of her team for 2 years and will serve as President of her school debate team, leading 150+ members. She specializes in helping debaters who are transitioning from being successful on a local level to being successful on a national level. She herself is a 2 time Tournament of Champions Qualifier (top 75 teams in the nation) 2 time NSDA nationals qualifier, placing within the top 40 teams in the nation, and was 5th place at the Texas State Championship. She has reached elimination rounds at nearly every national tournament she has attended, and was ranked the top female team in Texas, which is one of the most competitive states for debate. She has also championed 5+ locals, and can help guide debaters who want to succeed on the local circuit as well. Eesha enjoys helping all stages of debaters and can help them learn strategies based on what helped her. Eesha specializes in round strategy, helping debaters think quickly on their feet and use analytics, and salvaging difficult rounds.

Shriya is experienced at coaching younger debaters and debaters on the national circuit. She is the Carroll Middle School Debate Coach, and has taken students who have never done debate before and transformed them into debaters who were consistently breaking at local tournaments. Furthermore, she has been the Captain of her school’s Public Forum team for the past 2 years, and has grown the team from 4 students to over 12 and led the team to national success. She has 5 career bids, and has qualified to the Tournament of Champions and NSDA Nationals Twice, ranking in the top 40 teams in the nation her junior year. She has also gotten multiple top 5 speaker awards at tournaments such ad Jack Howe and Plano West, broken at nearly every national tournament she went to, and got 5th place at state. Shriya has gone to multiple camps over the years and has picked up on the best teaching strategies for her students. Furthermore, as a woman in debate, she has been aware of how women specifically are disincentivized to do debate, and how women can burn out. Shriya is familiar with most stages of competitve debate, from being a novice, to breaking at nationa torunaments, to winning national tournaments, so she’s uniquely qualified to coach students no matter what stage in their debate career they are in. Shriya specializes in helping students work on their individual weaknesses, and helping students transition from local success to national success.

Florence Zhu is a rising senior at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, California. Florence has been competing in debate for over 5 years and has experience with both public forum and extemporaneous speaking. She has accumulated over six bids across both events and has reached elimination rounds at tournaments such as the California state tournament, the Tournament of Champions, Emory, Berkeley, and Stanford. Florence is incredibly passionate about gender equity within debate and is excited to teach at Advocate Debate!

Melinda Li debates on the national circuit for A and M Consolidated High School in Texas. She has reached late elimination rounds at many national circuit tournaments including the Churchill Classic, Cypress, UK, and Blue Key. Melinda has also reached semifinals at the Bellaire Debate Tournament and won numerous speaker awards throughout her career. Locally, she has reached octofinals at the highly competitive Texas Forensic Association’s State Tournament. Melinda is super excited to teach at Advocate this summer!

Hi! I’m Jessica Chai (she/her), the first speaker of Seven Lakes CH, and I’ve been doing public forum debate since middle school. I’ve qualified to TFA, both silver and gold TOC, and NSDA Nationals. I’ve reached elimination rounds at national circuit tournaments like Yale, Bronx, Plano West, Glenbrooks, Churchill, Columbia, etc. If I get the chance, I like to run women-centered arguments and kritik frameworks.

Bio coming soon!

Claire Wang is a rising senior who debates for A&M Consolidated High School in Texas. Throughout her career, she has semifinaled the Bellaire Debate Tournament and reached late elimination rounds at other national tournaments such as Cypress, the Churchill Classic, Blue Key, and UK. In addition, she has been among the 10 teams throughout the nation invited to the prestigious Blue Key Round Robin, and has reached octofinals at TFA State. Claire looks forward to joining the Advocate team this summer!