Meet Our Staff

Among the staff for our institute will be:

• Maggie Berthiaume, Director of Debate at Woodward Academy.  Maggie has coached the champions or finalists of nearly every major tournament including NDCA Nationals. Her teams have also won the Georgia state tournament nine times. As a debater Maggie reached the semifinals of CEDA Nationals and was twice a first round at-large invitee to the National Debate Tournament, reaching the quarterfinals her senior year. She's a member of the Georgia Speech and Debate Hall of Fame and has been named Coach of the Year by the GFCA and Educator of the Year by the NDCA.
  
  
• Viveth Karthikeyan, Associate Director of Debate at Emory University.  Viveth joined us in 2024 as our Associate Director of Debate. A Barkley Forum alum who debated all four years, Viveth worked in K-12 education as a Teach for America Corps Member and more recently as Lead Programming Manger with the NYC Urban Debate League. He has also coached at Harvard since 2018, but we are excited to have him back “home” coaching for Emory.
  
  
• Mikaela Malsin, Director of Debate at Emory University. She is the former Director of Debate at Georgetown University.  Malsin previously coached at Wake Forest and the University of Georgia, where she earned her PhD in Communication. In her time coaching, she has worked with several First-Round-At-Large Bid teams at the National Debate Tournament, NDT finalists and other elimination round participants, winners of the Tournament of Champions, and many other successful teams at the high school and college level.
  
  
• Gabriel Morbeck, Assistant Director of Debate at Emory University. A former Emory Debater, he was a member of the team from 2016 to 2020, qualifying for the National Debate Tournament twice. After graduating from Emory, he coached part time with Emory while completing an M.A. in history at Villanova University. 
  
  
• Johnnie Stupeck, Head Debate Coach at the Georgia Debate Union at the University of Georgia.  Johnnie debated at the University of Georgia and went on to coach at Dartmouth College and Emory University, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree, before heading back to his alma mater. 
  
  
• Elysia Tillman, Melissa Maxcy Wade Debate and Dialogue Specialist for the Atlanta UDL at Emory University.  Elysia has been a part of the Atlanta Urban Debate League for 15 years as a participant, volunteer, and staff member, and we are excited to have them as part of the Barkley Forum staff to engage Barkley Forum students with AUDL programming and as a vital contributor to the ENDI teaching staff. Elysia graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2021 with a B.A. in sociology.