Kyle hietala (he/him), President

Kyle Hietala is the Program Director and Head Coach of Palo Alto High School Speech & Debate. Having started his career as a Teach For America teacher, he is passionate about inclusive community-building and visionary organizational leadership. Kyle also serves as Vice President, Operations on the Board of the California Coast Forensic League. Kyle grew up in rural Maine and competed in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Original Oratory at Morse High School, and then competed in APDA Parliamentary Debate at Yale University. He previously coached for the St. Luke’s School and Sidwell Friends School. He lives in Menlo Park, California with his partner, Miles, and their cat, Candace, and owns Zero To Narrative, a startup marketing & communications agency.

Vy linh nguyen (She/her), secretary

Teaching has been my calling since I was 20. I taught MS and HS English for close to three decades and coached volleyball and debate for half that time. Starting in 2023-24 I will be coaching MS and HS debate full-time for the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA. My wife and I are proud parents of three kids, one here in the US and two in Vietnam. Courage, kindfulness, and truth are values I try to live by.

Rodda John, treasurer

Rodda is a former debater -- he debated in middle school, in high school for Stuyvesant High School, and in college as a member of Columbia's APDA debate team. He is the founder and director emeritus of the New York Parliamentary Debate League and coach of the Stuyvesant parli team. He served for two terms previously on the NPDL Board, and is President Emeritus of APDA -- and he looks forward to continuing growing the NPDL to new regions, as well as fostering the league's current regions.

He tabs dozens of tournaments a year, and loves to discuss tab policy. Outside of debate, you can find him sailing, biking, reading philosophy, or refereeing soccer. In his spare time he works as a software engineer in New York City.

He's thrilled to be back with the NPDL this year!

Joel Jacobs (Any pronouns), TOC Director

Joel is an environmental lawyer, and the head coach at Berkeley High School. His students have won the NPDL-TOC and California State Championship, and the Nueva, Polygon, NYPDL, Vassar, Ridge, La Reina, and Jon Schamber Invitationals. He has been tournament director and tab director for some of the largest parli invitationals, and has served as the Director of Parliamentary Debate for the Golden Gate Speech Association. He competed in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate in high school in Southern California, and APDA parli at Wesleyan University. After college, he coached Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Collegiate School in Manhattan.