Board of Directors

The Washington Debate Coalition is run by a Board of Directors with extensive experience in the professional world and with high school and college debate.

Anjali Vats is the founder and president of the Washington Debate Coalition and policy debate coach at the University of Puget Sound. She was a successful college debater and has previously coached for several of the most successful high school and college programs in the country including the University of California, Berkeley, Whitman College, and Michigan State University. Anjali is also a licensed attorney, former law clerk to the Honorable A. William Maupin of the Nevada Supreme Court, and PhD student in Communication at the University of Washington.

Greg Achten has over 20 years of experience with debate instruction and administration. He is co-director of forensics at the University of California, Berkeley and director of the California National Debate Institute. He is one of the most successful college debate coaches in the country and consistently coaches his teams to the late elimination rounds of CEDA Nationals and the National Debate Tournament. Recently, Greg coached the winner of the prestigious Rex Copeland Award and had teams in the finals of both CEDA Nationals and the National Debate Tournament.

Erik Cornellier serves as the WDC's treasurer. He is a licensed attorney. Erik was an incredibly successful college debater for Michigan State University. He won numerous tournaments and speaker awards and placed in the finals of CEDA Nationals and the semi-finals of the National Debate Tournament. Erik served as a debate coach at his alma mater, where he coached teams to the finals of CEDA Nationals and the National Debate Tournament, and Gonzaga University where he coached several nationally ranked teams.

Glen Frappier serves as the WDC's vice-president. He is the director of forensics at Gonzaga University and director of the Gonzaga Debate Institute. Glen is an extremely successful college debate coach, having coached teams to 11 consecutive National Debate Tournaments as well as the elimination rounds of all major national tournaments. He also won CEDA Nationals in 1996 with Seattle resident and WDC supporter Bill Shinn.

Jim Hanson is the director of forensics at Whitman College and director of the Whitman National Debate Institute. He runs an incredibly successful debate program, consistently producing some of the best policy and parliamentary debate teams in the country. Jim also had teams in the elimination rounds of four national debate tournaments in 2009.

Ben Meiches serves as the WDC's secretary. He is an assistant debate coach at the University of Puget Sound and former debater at Whitman College. Ben was a successful high school and college debater -- he was an octa-finalist at the National Debate Tournament and quarter-finalist at CEDA Nationals, and reached the elimination rounds of a number of major tournaments. Ben is also a graduate student in the prestigious Political Science at Johns Hopkins University.

Karen Rathe teaches journalism with the University of Washington Department of Communication. She previously taught at Seattle University and advised the student newspaper at Shoreline Community College. She spent 20 years in newspaper journalism, much of it as a designer and copy editor for The Seattle Times. She also worked as a reporter and photographer for papers in Oregon. Karen is a parent volunteer with the WDC's first new program, the Ingraham Debate Team.