Executive Council

Mark was elected WASDL president in spring 2023, after serving as Lincoln-Douglas Tournament Director. Mark competed in Policy debate in both high school and college. Most recently, he was a business and technology teacher at Westfield High School in Chantilly, VA. Now retired from full-time teaching, Mark continues as the Westfield HS debate team coach. Prior to becoming a teacher, he worked for 25 years at some of the world’s leading technology companies in sales and marketing roles.

Mark believes that speech and debate can transform lives, improving students’ confidence and teaching invaluable communication skills. He enjoys recruiting new schools and coaches to this fantastic activity. When not at a WASDL tournament, he enjoys bicycling and travelling to Estonia.

Mark has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Ohio University and a Masters of Business Administration degree from George Washington University.

Jim coached the Broad Run High School Debate & Speech Team for the past decade and has been part of the WASDL Executive Council for just about as long. He values competitive high school forensics for its contribution to developing skepticism. In his non-team moments, Jim is a passionate Unschooler.

Ann Marie is an alumna of WASDL, having competed in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate at Woodbridge Senior High School. She coached at Chantilly High School before joining the WASDL Executive Council, starting as Lincoln-Douglas Tournament Director in 2004. Ann Marie then served as the Vice President of Lincoln-Douglas from 2006-2016 and has served as the Washington Diocesan Director from 2007 to present. Ann Marie also served on the Executive Council of the National Catholic Forensic League from 2016-2024.

Ann Marie is a trial lawyer at Hollingsworth LLP, focusing on complex litigation. Debate was a critical stepping stone to her career and she enjoys working with WASDL and the NCFL to provide the same opportunities she had as a high school student to young, aspiring lawyers and judges here in the DMV and across the country.

Roland is a proud alum of WASDL. He competed in Debate, Congress, and Speech at Mt. Vernon High School, and then in Debate at George Mason University. He has served as a Coach or Assistant Coach at Mt. Vernon High School, Woodbridge High School, and Hayfield Secondary. He has served WASDL as the Vice-President of LD Debate, League President, and has been the Secretary/Treasurer of WASDL since 1998. He has served NCFL on their Executive Council, including as NCFL’s President, and has been the NCFL National Tournament Director since 2006.

In his professional life, Roland is the President & CEO of Miklos Systems, Inc., an employee-owned government contracting software development firm in Fairfax. Before taking on his management role, he was a systems and applications programmer and a systems engineer, and has a BS in Computer Science.

Roland strongly believes that speech and debate laid the groundwork for his professional life and have contributed directly to his success. He serves the WASDL and NCFL community in recognition and appreciation of everyone who worked so hard to make the opportunities possible for him. He pays these past leaders back by serving today’s students.

Dani grew up in Iowa where she competed in policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate and speech at Kennedy High School. She also competed in policy debate in college. She is currently the head coach for the Yorktown HS speech and debate team. She has coached Lincoln-Douglas debate team since 2015. From 2009 to 2012 she coached the Eliot-Hine Middle School Debate team in the DC Urban Debate League. Before that she coached debate for four years in Iowa.

Dani has served as the WASDL Lincoln-Douglas Debate Tournament Director for the past two years and is starting her first term as the Vice President for Policy Debate. She believes in the power of speech & debate and works hard to make it accessible to as many competitors as possible. Her latest initiative is to rework novice policy debate to make it less daunting, so more debaters see it as a viable choice.

When she is not coaching debate, Dani is an educator who works with high school students who have intellectual disabilities. Also, because education and speech & debate do not keep her busy enough, she is also the vice president of her union, the Arlington Education Association.

Tim has coached Speech and Debate for 15 years, first at Woodgrove High School and then at Rock Ridge High School, the reigning VHSL State Debate Champions. After thirty-two years in public education, Tim is planning to retire from teaching in 2027 but will continue to volunteer for WASDL because he has seen the transformative power of speech and debate and is enthusiastic about staying connected to the vibrant and supportive WASDL community.

Meghan is a proud former WASDL competitor whose dedication to the league spans decades. In 1998, she founded the Speech team at Hayfield Secondary School, where she coached and taught Theatre. Demonstrating incredible commitment, she then served the league as Tournament Director and Vice President for Speech for nearly two decades. Meghan continues to inspire young students today as she teaches Theatre at Rocky Run Middle School.

Since 2004, Chuck has coached the Good Counsel Speech & Debate team. From 1987 to 2000, he coached the Mt. St. Joseph High School Speech & Debate team in the Baltimore Catholic forensic league. Chuck has served as WACFL Speech Tournament Director for Speech for the past several years.

He enjoys watching students gain confidence as speakers and performers, and he believes Speech & Debate is a way for students to voice their opinions and share their concerns with a wider audience.

Chuck currently teaches English and serves as an administrator at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, live theatre, and exploring the arts.

David teaches upper school physics, chemistry, and Algebra I at The Heights. He is also the school's Lincoln-Douglas coach and an assistant JV soccer coach. He matriculated at Rutgers College, where he was an editor and board member of a campus watchdog group. After a short stint in sales, David taught public high school in Newark, NJ and Dunellen, NJ. He has previously taught AP European History, Ancient History, Chemistry, Life Science, Pre-calculus, and Algebra II.

Jeff is the head debate coach at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia, where he works with both middle and high school students. He previously spent four years as head debate coach at Lincoln High School in Oregon, and began his own debate career competing in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate in high school.

Jeff believes the value of debate reaches far beyond winning tournaments. He is passionate about helping students develop critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, confidence, and the ability to engage thoughtfully with opposing viewpoints, and he especially enjoys introducing new students to debate and helping them discover what they can accomplish.

A military veteran, Jeff works as a transformation analyst supporting federal government operations. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and an MBA in Business Analytics. After four years in Madrid, Spain, he returned to Northern Virginia in 2025 with his wife and son.

Richard grew up in Kansas, where he competed in policy debate, student congress, and speech (most notably foreign extemp and HI) at Garden City High School. After graduating from Wheaton College (IL), Richard worked on Capitol Hill for ten years before transitioning to the classroom. He has taught humanities classes at Dominion Christian School since 2016 and has been part of the WASDL Lincoln-Douglas tab team since 2018.

Robert joined BASIS Independent McLean as part of our founding faculty in 2016. Previously, he was part of the founding faculty at BASIS DC, where he taught economics and served as coach to nationally qualifying middle and high school speech and debate teams. Prior to joining BASIS Curriculum Schools, Rob worked as a teaching assistant in the Economics Department at Georgetown University where he first caught a passion for showing students the power of economic reasoning, and as a research assistant in the Government Department. He holds a B.A. from Georgetown University in Economics with minors in Government and Psychology. When not coaching his debate team to victory, you can often find him spending his weekends biking along the Washington & Old Dominion and Capital Crescent recreational trails, discussing charity evaluation metrics, and teaching preschool Sunday School at his church.

Mike Risen is the Associate Head of School and Head of Middle School at Norwood School in Bethesda, Maryland. In this leadership role, he oversees the middle school program and also supports the school's high school placement process. He holds a B.A. from the College of William & Mary and an M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University.

Sheryl is also a proud alum of WASDL. She competed in Policy Debate and Speech at Ft. Hunt High School in Alexandria, VA. Sheryl is the Speech and Debate Coach at Dominion High School in Sterling, VA, and teaches US History there as well. She has served WACFL as the Vice-President or Tournament Director of Student Congress since 2012.

Sheryl strongly believes that speech and debate help students find their voice and lay the groundwork for success later in life, just as it did for her. She serves the WASDL and NCFL community to pay it forward for today’s students and in honor and gratitude for those who enabled her to learn and succeed in both Speech and Debate and all her future endeavors.

In addition to Speech and Debate, Sheryl enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and solving puzzles.

Kelsey serves as the Tournament Director for Student Congress in WASDL and coaches speech and debate at Lightridge High School in Aldie, Virginia. Her journey with WACFL began in high school, where she competed in Student Congress. Kelsey believes that speech and debate offer excellent opportunities for students to develop confidence and critical thinking skills, which benefit them in all areas of life.