Meet our division directors, who work tirelessly to ensure that students in their events have the best experience possible! This year, VBI is offering three sessions:
June 28th-July 11th at Villanova University in Philadelphia (PF & LD)
July 13-July 26 at Occidental College in Los Angeles (PF, LD, and WSD)
July 28-August 10 at the University of San Diego (PF & LD)
Cale McCrary is the Director of Public Forum at VBI. Cale has been teaching high school debate for 9 years, currently for Magnolia Debate and Del Norte HS. Formerly, Cale served as Director of Speech and Debate at Westlake High School (2023) and Corona del Sol (2020). In PF, Cale’s teams have accumulated over 70 bids to the Tournament of Champions, with championships at tournaments like the New York City Invitational, Arizona State University Invitational, Barkley Forum at Emory, Grapevine Classic and Golden Desert UNLV Tournament.
Rodrigo Paramo is the Director of Lincoln Douglas at VBI. Rodrigo has been coaching high school debate for over a decade and joined the Greenhill coaching staff as a full-time classroom teacher in 2022. In his time as a coach, Rodrigo has coached multiple state champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate, and his students have consistently championed or competed in late elimination rounds at major high school debate tournaments. In his first year working with the Greenhill debate team, one of his students won the Dukes & Bailey Cup for Season-Long Excellence, awarded to the highest-performing high school debater over the course of a debate season. Rodrigo believes deeply in the power of debate to challenge the way students think about the world, inculcate critical thinking skills that extend far past any individual debate round, and to build life-long friendships.
SunHee Simon is the Director of World Schools Debate at VBI. SunHee has participated in debate since the 7th grade and has been a championship debater in Lincoln Douglas, World Schools Debate, and Policy Debate. In 2015, she was one of only two people to qualify to the Tournament of Champions in CX and LD. Her freshman year at Stanford University, she earned the semifinal title at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) national tournament. Now, she coaches students independently, having gotten a variety of students to late elims, finals, and/or championships of national tournaments like the Glenbrooks, NDCA, Berkeley, Emory, and the TOC. She is currently a full time teacher at Coppell High School where she continues to coach speech and debate.