Meet Our Team

Meet your officers for the 2021-22 season — the people who help our amazing team run smoothly every day :D! Whether you have a question about an assignment or anything regarding s&d they will always be there for you. Whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is hot, we’ll be together whatever the weather whether we like it or not.

President of Speech

Amber Haiwen

President of debate

Jasper Wu

Senior VP of Platform

Aaron Shih

Junior VP of platform

Tanaisha Mistry

Senior VP of Interpretation

Hailey Pham

Junior VP of Interpretation

Parsa Ansari

VP Of Lincoln Douglas Debate

Ashley Lee

VP Of Policy Debate

Yongjin Lee

vp of policy debate

Conner Shih

VP of Policy Debate

Iris Zhou

VP of parliamentary debate/tournament director

Eunwoo Kim

vp of parliamentary debate/tournament director

Nora Thomas

VP of Public Forum Debate

Leon Huang

Vp of Public Forum Debate

Daniel Xie

Coaches

GAY BRASHER

Email: gay.brasher@gmail.com

Gay Brasher has been the head of the Leland Speech and Debate Program for more than 20 years. She is recognized as a seven-diamond coach by the National Speech and Debate Association and is a lead member on the board of the Coast Forensic League. To see her students utilize exercises and rely on tactics they learned from Speech and Debate in college and in their careers is Mrs. Brasher's motivation to continue her efforts. In addition to her work with Leland, Mrs. Brasher has extensive relationships with the Speech and Debate programs at Bret Harte Middle School, Burnett Middle School, Horace Mann Elementary School, and the California Migrant Education program.

PRIYA GARCIA

Email: pRgarcia@sjusd.org

Priya Garcia is an English Teacher at Leland as well as a coach for Leland Speech and Debate. This will be Ms. Garcia’s second year as one of the lead instructors of Leland High School. She has previously coached speech and debate at another high school and also worked at a private speech and debate company. During her time in high school, she competed in Parliamentary Debate and a variety of interpretation events.

CHRIS WARDNER

Email: cwardner@almadencountryday.org

Chris Wardner has been a coach for the Leland Speech and Debate team for 14 years. During this time he has coached Lincoln- Douglas Debate, as well as both International and National Extemporaneous Speaking. Mr. Wardner helps students develop as speakers while expanding their knowledge on many relevant and important issue. He has been recognized as a three-diamond coach by the National Speech and Debate Association and has helped many of his students achieve both state and national titles. Along with being a coach for Leland Speech and Debate he is also the head of the Almaden Country Day School Speech and Debate team and was awarded the 2021 Middle School Coach of the Year by the National Speech and Debate Association.

MICHAELA NORTHROP

Email: michaelanorthrop@gmail.com

Michaela Northrop has been a coach at Leland for 7 years and has been coaching for 17 years overall. During her time at Leland she has coached both Impromptu and Policy Debate. Through her time on the team she has helped many students become better speakers and debaters. She is also recognized as two-diamond coach by the National Speech and Debate Association. Ms. Northrop puts countless hours into coaching students on the Leland Speech and Debate Team, and is extremely committed to seeing them succeed both inside and outside of tournaments. She always encourages her students to practice and gives them helpful feedback that will help them develop as public speakers.