Scott Wheeler is our director of debate. He is one of the best debate coaches in the United States. He is the first coach in history to receive the Ted W. Belch award for being the best policy debate coach in the US for two consecutive years. Over the past eight years, Mr. Wheeler has coached his teams to four national championships and seven state championships as well as winning at the most prestigious and difficult competitions in the US including Stanford, Cal Berkeley, Emory, Greenhill, St. Marks, Blake, and MBA. Mr. Wheeler’s teams have won the Unger Cup twice, an award for the Policy Debate team that places highest in six different national tournaments. Scott has a BS in Communication from Northwestern.

Alissa Duong is our director of curriculum and instruction.

Coach Alissa comes to us as a five-time national champion and seven-time state champion with experience in advancing to twenty-seven national out rounds. She was ranked the fourth-place speaker in the nation at the Phi Rho Pi National Speech and Debate tournament and was selected to be a member of the exclusive All-American Team by the American Forensics Association. Coach Alissa is a national finalist in Programmed Oral Interpretation, After Dinner Speaking, Prose Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Communication Analysis. The biggest crowd she has spoken in front of? Eight thousand people and thirteen service animals.

Coach Alissa serves as a professor of communication studies and teaches public speaking, interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and argumentation. She also works with the college Vice Presidents to help write and review curriculum for the institution. In addition to this, she coaches speech and debate at the collegiate level. This past year, she helped the team win both the California State Championship and the National Championship. Her college team currently holds the title of most national championships won in history.

Coach Alissa was an ESL student and understands the importance of confident and clear communication. Her teaching goal is to help empower as many students as possible to be the best versions of themselves.

Frank Smith is a speech coach originally from Boston, Massachusetts. A two-time state champion and national semifinalist himself, Frank loves all interpretation events (but particularly adores Humorous Interpretation). He has worked for UTNIF, Fluency, Milton Academy, Leland High School, and many others. He’s coached NSDA and NIETOC finalists and champions in Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Original Spoken Word Poetry, Prose, Storytelling, Expository, and Programmed Oral Interpretation. In 2021, he coached a four-time Showcase Finalist (the highest possible honor) at NSDA Middle School Nationals.

Frank also works as a TV and film writer. He is currently staffed on two TV series for YouTube: children’s comedy OCEAN EXPLORERS from Moonbug Entertainment (COCOMELON) and Baby Einstein (851K subscribers), and an under-wraps teen drama (17M subscribers). Previously, he wrote on Disney Channel’s RAVEN’S HOME. Prior to that, he wrote an animated pilot with Tornante TV (BOJACK HORSEMAN), developed a live-action series with Vice Studios (FYRE), and rewrote a horror movie with Fangoria (THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK).

He has also published seven plays, a mix of comedy and drama, with the nationally-recognized speech and debate publishers Mushroom Cloud Press and Always Writing 4 U. Before moving to California, Frank managed an organic chemistry lab, and planned to attend medical school. A few years ago, he starred in Episode Five of the Emmy Award-nominated TIDYING UP WITH MARIE KONDO on Netflix.

Coach Alana is a UCLA graduate, former Lincoln-Douglas debate captain, nationally ranked MUN debater and children’s theater director. She has also participated in Mock Trial, Comedy Sportz and numerous other speaking events. At UCLA she wrote for the award-winning student paper The Daily Bruin and interned at the podcasting company Crooked Media. Coach Alana teaches several classes including MUN, Media Literacy, Littles Speech, and speech and debate comprehensive, and hopes to make debate accessible and engaging for students of all ages and skill levels. She has also worked for podcasting startup Crooked Media, publisher of the popular podcast Pod Save America, and has worked in C-SPAN’s digital department in Washington, D.C.