Daisy Fernandez (she/her) is a senior at the University of Washington, double-majoring in English and International Studies. Daisy fell in love with public speaking after her mother made her join her middle school’s Mock Trial program. She would continue to compete for eight more years, eventually becoming an award-winning member of her collegiate-level team. She started teaching for Debatable in the winter of 2024 and is excited to return for the 2024-25 school year. She firmly believes every student has the potential to be a great debater. Outside of teaching, Daisy loves playing Dungeons & Dragons and cheering for the Seattle Mariners. 

Lazarya Grayson (she/her/they) is the newest coach to join the team as of August 2024! At the University of Washington, Lazarya is entering her fourth year, studying Sociology, Education, Learning & Societies, and Japanese! She aspires to become a dual-lingual educator while applying sociological ideologies. Prior to university, Lazarya was a Boys & Girls Club youth and mentor. Through various programs, she has several years of experience working with kids. In 2018 and 2020, Lazarya won the Boys & Girls Club’s Youth of the Year title for Spokane County, WA. Between the program and her mentorship, she gained experience in public speaking with large audiences while opening up about personal resiliency.

Reese Haley has six years of experience debating in middle and high school, including three years in the Idaho tournament bracket. She's won numerous awards in public speaking and qualified for the 2020 Idaho State Debate Tournament before its cancellation due to Covid. Reese founded and coached her own debate camps for elementary and middle school students, teaching beginning and intermediate debate skills. In addition, Reese has several years' experience working with children as a private nanny and daycare. She is passionate about teaching debate to kids and is committed to creating an engaging, educational, and fun environment for all DebateAble students!

Griffin Hehmeyer (he/him) is a student at the University of Washington with over six years of debate experience, including one previous year working with DebateAble. He was ranked top five in the state for three separate events after winning dozens of Lincoln-Douglas (LD), Impromtu, and Extemporaneous tournaments throughout high-school, qualifying for nationals three times in both LD and Extemporaneous. Since graduating, Griffin has made it a priority to stay connected with debate, volunteering as an assistant coach for his local high-school. In his freshman year he founded and has since been leading UW’s only standing debate team. Acting now as both a coach and competitor, he has guided several students to 1st-place finishes as well as earning some himself.  Whether teaching or competing, Griffin emphasizes community engagement, analytical and logical thinking, as well as taking risks. He hopes to build a strong next generation of eager and intelligent debaters. 

Cara Liu (they/them) is a student at Columbia University with four years of experience in both competitive debate and teaching. They placed as one of the top four debaters at state tournaments for three years in a row and placed at every local tournament her junior and senior year. They previously started and ran their own summer debate camp for kids, focusing on the basic structures of debate as well as developing their public speaking skills. Cara deeply values the skills that come with debate and has a passion for teaching debate to young people in order to inspire them to participate in high school debate and beyond. 

Avalyn Renee (she/her) debated competitively for nine years. In high school, she competed in both speech and debate where she received a speech state championship title, national qualifications, top speaker awards, and bids to the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Avalyn graduated from Gonzaga University's honors program in the spring of 2024 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. While at Gonzaga, she competed in policy debate for five years and is a four-time qualifier to the National Debate Tournament. She is continuing her education at Tufts University where she will receive a master's in Philosophy.  Avalyn, who has coached for DebateAble since 2020, loves working with young people to develop critical thinking and logical reasoning skills. Her extensive experience as a tutor, nanny, and debate coach makes her classes rich with activities that ensure students are having fun while being challenged to grow each session. 

Linda Sabee (she/her) started coaching with DebateAble in April of 2022. As a former elementary and middle school teacher, Linda brings classroom expertise and management skills to the role of DebateAble coach. She has also been a small business owner for 22 years, which provides her with a set of life skills and perspective that enriches her coaching. Linda sings professionally and performs regularly in the Seattle area, loves cats and has two stinky beasts named Coco and Vlad and a grand-pup named Robin. Linda looks forward to helping build the next generation of confident, respectful and engaged citizens!

Ilinca Slabu (she/her) is a current law student at the University of Washington School of Law, and has about five years of competitive speech and debate experience. She has won various awards at the regional, state, and national level competitions, including the Orv Iverson Award, presented to the top speech and debate junior or novice-level competitor. In her second year as a speech and debate competitor, she was named the First Place National Champion of JV IPDA Debate. Since then, she has coached speech and debate at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels, and currently coaches the University of Washington Debate Society. She is now in her second year of law school, after which she hopes to pursue a career in Tech and AI Law. 

Tyler Zabolio (he/him) has been in the world of competitive debate for over seven years. In high school, he competed at both the state and national levels in impromptu speaking, extemporaneous speaking, and Public Forum debate. The NSDA ranked him a top 50 Impromptu speaker as well as a top 50 ranked Public Forum debater in Washington State his junior and senior years. Tyler is now on the policy debate team at Gonzaga University and gets to travel all around the country debating! He is in his sophomore year GU, majoring in Business Administration with a focus in Public Law and Policy. Tyler is also working towards minors in both Political Science and Leadership. He has two years of debate coaching experience and loves to work with kids. In his lessons, students will work on critically engaging with arguments to reach the deepest levels of understanding.