Executive and Home Office Staff
Matthew Fraser, Executive Director
Matt Fraser is the Executive Director of the SNFI, and the Director of Forensics at Stanford University and at the Head-Royce School. As a collegiate coach, Mr. Fraser has coached teams to elimination round success in all three types of collegiate debate, including elimination rounds at the National Debate Tournament. His high school teams have cleared to elimination rounds at every major national tournament, including Greenhill, Wake Forest, Valley, Bronx, St. Mark’s, the Glenbrooks, Redlands, USC, Emory, Berkeley, Stanford, the TOC and NFL Nationals. 2011 will be Mr. Fraser’s 21st year directing the SNFI, during which the camp has grown from 40 to as many as 400 students.
Rich Boltizar, Associate Executive Director
Rich Boltizar is the Associate Director of the SNFI camp, working with each of the Division Directors throughout the actual program. Rich is a past two-time President of the Stanford Debate Society and is the Associate Director of the Stanford Invitational tournament--one of the largest high school tournaments in the nation. He also works as an Associate Administrative Director and Chief Technology Officer for Education Unlimited. In college, Rich competed in both APDA (American format) and British Parliamentary Debate, reaching elimination rounds of the World Universities Debating Championships, and recently served a one year term on the American Parliamentary Debate Association's Board of Trustees. Rich debated for Capital High School in Boise, Idaho, and cleared at many of the top Policy Debate tournaments in the country, including Berkeley and Whitman, and earning bids at the University of Texas at Austin, Alta and Gonzaga.
Jenny Herbert-Creek, Associate Director
Jenny Herbert Creek is an executive administrator for the SNFI. She is an honors graduate of Stanford University, where she competed in policy debate and reached elimination rounds at tournaments such as CEDA Nationals. She was an officer of the Stanford Debate Society and a public speaking instructor for graduate students at Stanford’s Technical Communication Program. Jenny earned her MBA at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. This summer will be her thirteenth summer working with SNFI.
Corey Turoff, At-Camp Administrative Director
Corey Turoff is the division director for policy debate at the SNFI and a policy debate coach at Stanford University and the Head Royce School in California. Corey debated at the University of Southern California where he qualified for elimination rounds at every major national tournament including the quarterfinals of CEDA Nationals in 2002. After graduating, Corey coached at Damien High School in Southern California. His teams there were in the finals of the Georgetown Day tournament, octofinals or better at USC, Redlands, Berkeley, St. Marks, the Highland Round Robin, and the Tournament of Champions. Corey now teaches and coaches debate at the Head-Royce School where his teams have been in elimination rounds at St. Marks, USC, Redlands, Wake Forest, Emory, Stanford, Berkeley and Lexington. Corey has previously directed the National Debate Institute DC. This is his sixth year at the SNFI.
Brian Manuel, Division Director, Policy Debate
Brian has been coaching debate for over a decade. He is widely recognized for unrivaled talent in creating and rebuilding programs from the bottom up. In 2008, he was awarded the Michael Bacon Coaching Award presented by Lexington High School for his success and commitment to the activity. Brian has coached for Harvard University, Lakeland High School, Chattahoochee High School, Cathedral Preparatory School, and Scranton High School. He has coached the champions of the 2003 Bronx Science, 2008 Barkley Forum, and the 2011 Meadows & USC tournaments. In addition, his teams have also reached the elimination rounds of virtually every major national tournament they've attended, including the 2008 & 2011 Tournament of Champions, and have had final round appearances at Wake Forest, Bronx Science, The University of Michigan, Lexington High School, the USC, Cal-Berkley, and the 2007 National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. Also his students have participated in a number of national round robins including The Greenhill School, Georgetown University, The University of Michigan, Pace Academy, College Prep, and Harvard University. Previously, Brian has taught at the Kentucky National Debate Institute, with the Fellows program, Capitol Classic Institute, and the Georgetown Debate Seminar. This will be Brian's 6th summer at Stanford.
Dan Meyers, Division Director, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Dan Meyers returning for his third year as division director for Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the SNFI and is the Director of Lincoln-Douglas Debate at The Meadows School in Las Vegas, Nevada. Previously, Dan was the Director of Debate at Clovis West high school in Fresno and Presentation High School in San Jose, California. where he coached both policy and LD extensively. In LD his students have cleared at tournaments across California and the nation, including Stanford, Yale, Glenbrooks, Alta, Apple Valley, Greenhill, St. Marks, Wake Forest, the Victory Briefs Tournament, College Prep, Valley and the Crestian Classic. Dan’s students have also participated in the Stanford, MBA and Greenhill Round Robins. Dan has qualified LD debaters to both the Tournament of Champions and NFL Nationals and returns to SNFI for his seventh summer and his fourth as director.
Les Phillips, Division Director & Instructor, Public Forum
Les Phillips is one of the most successful debate coaches of modern history. Mr. Phillips directed forensics at Lexington High School (MA) for more than twenty years, and during that time he coached students to numerous national invitational championships, as well as TOC and NCFL championships in policy debate (first place finishes, and top speaker awards, at TOC). He has worked at more than twenty-five summer workshops, is a five diamond NFL coach (an honor attained by only about 1% of all coaches) and former NFL National Council member who served with the NFL during some of Public Forum's formative years. Mr. Phillips is unique in being qualified to coach in policy, LD, and having taught parli at prior camps as well, so he is well versed on both the practical and theoretical issues involved in approaching topics of various sorts, ranging from policy to value to statement of fact. He has coached both high school and collegiate debate, and worked at some of the nation's top summer institutes, including Dartmouth and the Stanford National Forensic Institute.