CNDI Staff
Carol Shackelford
Camp Director
Carol has been the director of the CNDI for more than 10 years and has extensive experience as a coach, educator, and administrator. When she was a coach for Bingham High School, her team won 10 state titles. As an educator, she teaches AP Government & AP Comparative Government and has worked as an advisor for the student government program. As an administrator, she is the chair of her department, has directed countless tournaments, and has served in a variety of leadership roles for schools and debate camps.
Mike Shackelford
Rowland Hall St. Marks
In his years of coaching at Rowland Hall, Mike has qualified numerous teams to the TOC, including three quarterfinalists and a semi-finalists. His teams have received bids at almost every major national tournament including championships or top speaker awards at Grapevine, Meadows, Notre Dame, Alta, Blake, Stanford, Golden Desert, and Berkeley. He has also coached multiple state champions and three Top 5 finishers at NSDA Nationals, including the 2010 runners-up. In college, Mike was a four-time NDT qualifier for Weber State University and won a number of tournaments.
Malcolm Gordon
The Meadows School
Malcolm has coached for The Meadows School in Las Vegas for 8 seasons after coaching for 9 years at UMKC. As a debater at UMKC, he was top speaker at CEDA nationals, a first-round team to the NDT, a two-time top 10 speaker at the NDT, and lost in the finals of the 2007 NDT for a second place finish. As a college coach for 9 seasons, he coached teams to the elimination rounds of every major national tournament and the finals of CEDA nationals. At the NDT, he’s coached teams in the doubles, octafinals, and quarterfinals. Since joining The Meadows, he has coached three teams to the TOC with 15 total bids. He has had teams in the quarters, sems, and finals of multiple TOC bid tournaments, and coached the winners of the 2020 Greenhill Round Robin. This is his 21st year teaching at summer debate institutes.
Alyssa Lucas-Bolin
Sonoma Academy
Curtis Ortega
CSU Long Beach
Curtis Ortega is currently a 3rd year college student at California State University of Long Beach (CSU Long Beach) where he competes on the policy debate team. He previously debated for Humanities and Arts Academy of Los Angeles in highschool as a part of LAMDL, which is also known as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League. As for college, he is currently a 3x First Round at Large Bid Recipient, which makes him a nationally-ranked top 16 team in the country. He is a former Copeland Panelist, and has been invited to the Brick City Round Robin, Dartmouth Round Robin, and the Kentucky Round Robin. Curtis has won other national tournaments on the NDT/CEDA Circuit, such as the University of Mary Washington Tournament in 2022, the University of Kentucky Tournament in 2023, and ADA Nationals in 2024. This year, he has won the Brick City Round Robin, and earned top-speaker at CEDA Nationals, while placing deep at most national tournaments and earning high speaker awards throughout his career. He has previously taught at the LAMDL Debate Camp, the Wyoming Forensic Institute, and the UH Honors Debate Workshop, and is excited to teach at CNDI for the first time this summer!
Emilio Menotti
University of California, Berkeley
Emilio Menotti is a student at the University of California, where he studies political science and public policy. As an accomplished high school debater, he qualified to and broke at major national tournaments such as the TOC. Since graduating in 2022, Emilio has been the head coach at James Logan High school, where he has successfully coached multiple teams to qualify for the TOC. Emilio now debates as a 2A for Berkeley with his partner Riley.
Riley Reichel
University of California, Berkeley
Riley is an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley where he studies Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and participates on the debate team. He was a double octa-finalist at the 2024 National Debate Tournament. He also coaches for Head-Royce where he coached teams to finals at Alta, semi-finals at Peninsula and Jack Howe, and quarter-finals at the TOC.
Molly Cozzens
Rowland Hall St. Marks
Since beginning coaching in 2004, Molly’s focus has been cultivating elite debaters who not only dominate national-level competition, but also stand out as exceptional speaking talents. She built her high school debate program from the ground up, then returned to coach the team to produce multiple NSDA Nationals qualifiers plus its first State Championship in over two decades. She currently serves as Assistant Coach at Rowland Hall St. Marks, a team which produces numerous top national circuit competitors and TOC qualifiers. As a competitor, Molly was a consistent finalist and Top Speaker at major tournaments, ultimately winning college nationals in Impromptu Speaking and placing third in Parliamentary Debate. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Southern California, taught Public Speaking and Argumentation at the university level for several years, and contributed to a leading textbook on public speaking.
Mateo Mijares
University of California, Davis
Mateo is a policy debater at UC Davis, where he founded the policy team and qualified to the 2024 NDT in the program’s first year—a first in the university’s history. In high school he debated at Sonoma Academy, where he qualified for the TOC for the first time in school history and consistently reached elimination rounds at national tournaments. Before attending Davis, he went on to coach at Sonoma Academy for a year, helping teams reach elimination rounds at national invitationals.
Eliana McLaughlin
University of California, Davis
Eliana McLaughlin is a policy debater and undergraduate student at the University of California Davis, where she studies philosophy and economics. She participated in the creation and founding of the Davis policy debate team. Prior to attending Davis, she debated for four years at C.K McClatchy, where she qualified for the TOC twice and consistently reached elimination rounds at national tournaments.
Lorilei Lassen
University of Wyoming
Lorilei currently debates at the University of Wyoming, where she is studying communications as well as going to flight school. She has consistently been in elimination rounds at college majors and the NDT, as well as earning a top speaker award at the Kentucky tournament. She is also an assistant coach for a high school team in Utah. This will be her second year at the CNDI.