Ioana Cionea is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, United States where she studies intercultural communication with an emphasis on cross-cultural argumentation. She has previously earned a law degree in her home country, Romania and has been involved in debate since 1995. Ioana has worked on curriculum design, tournament administration and training with IDEA for the past five years.
Ioana will be teaching the “Introduction to Argumentation and Debate” course as she returns for the second year at the Institute. In addition, Ioana will serve as this year’s Curriculum Director, position in which she will work with the Institute’s instructors on the courses offered and staff management.

Alex Dukalskis is currently working with IDEA as program coordinator in South Korea. Alex graduated Willamette University in the United States, where he studied politics, philosophy and sociology. He debated there for three years and was a successful national and international debater, advancing to quarterfinals in the national championship and winning the IDEA International Tournament in Lithuania. After graduation, Alex was awarded a Fulbright Grant to South Korea and spent one year there. Since February of 2007 he has been involved in training, event organizing and program coordination in a number of countries, including Bangladesh, China, Mongolia, Uganda, and the Czech Republic.
Alex will be teaching the “Conversational English” and “Learning English through Debate” courses.

Kent Fielding currently teaches at Skagway High School, Alaska where he coaches drama and debate, cross country and track. He has had a successful record as a coach, his drama and debate team winning the state championship in 2004, and he has coached state champions in several other events. A published poet, Kent's work has appeared in more than twenty magazines and his first book, “Chief Iffucan,” was published in 2002. Kent is currently organizing a World Nuclear Awareness Conference on the University of Alaska campus in Juneau, Alaska.
Kent will be our events coordinator at this year’s Institute, a position in which he will be organizing evening and free time activities for students and assisting in debate format classes.

Kate Hamm has recently moved from the United States to southeast France where she maintains being active in debate, speech and theatre. She has previously earned several degrees in theatre and communication, English literature and theatre arts and has taught the full range of communication curriculum (Theatre, English, Speech and Debate) for over 22 years in Iowa, New York and Nebraska. Kate has instructed Lincoln Douglas debate at many camps in the United States and she is a founding member of the Lincoln Douglas Education Project and a National Forensics Leagues Double Diamond Coach.

Kate will be teaching the Lincoln Douglas Debate course at this year’s Institute.

Arminda Lathrop is IDEA’s Communications Director and Project Coordinator at Willamette University, Oregon, United States. She has previously taught persuasive and argumentative writing in a variety of settings. Arminda served as a teaching fellow for two years at Oregon State University, where she taught Writing Composition. Upon graduation, Arminda taught English Composition, Logic and Style, and Writing Conventions at Chemeketa and Linn-Benton Community Colleges.
Arminda taught Persuasive Writing and directed IDEA’s Debate and Citizen Journalism Institute in 2007, and she will be Institute Director in addition to teaching the course “Persuasive Writing Conventions” at this year’s Institute.

Jackson B. Miller is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts and the Director of Forensics at Linfield College in Oregon, United States. His previous education includes degrees from Ohio University and Southern Illinois University with an emphasis in rhetorical criticism and performance studies. Jackson’s interests include protest and reform rhetoric, performance theory, and the philosophy of communication. He has been actively involved in competitive forensics since 1988, and he has served as the director of the speech and debate program at Linfield College since 2001. His students have brought home numerous awards from regional and national forensics competitions for excellence in debate, public speaking, and performance of literature.
Jackson will be teaching the “British Parliamentary Debate” course at this year’s Institute.

Sharon Porter has retired in 2004 from Northern Arizona University after a successful career in coaching debate and teaching communication. Sharon served as a Director of Forensics at Northern Arizona University from 1981 to 1992 and again from 1999 to 2004. During those years her team qualified for and competed in national tournaments in policy, cross-examination, Lincoln-Douglas and Parliamentary Debate as well as eleven individual events. She was active in a number of professional forensic education organizations. Shortly after retirement from NAU in 2004 Sharon became involved with IDEA as a consultant and has attended several IDEA events in the 2004-2006 period.
Sharon will be teaching “Advanced Argumentation” and “Coaching Debate” at the Institute this year.

Jeffrey Romanow is a high school teacher in New York City, United States. His education includes a degree in communication and journalism and a master of science in education. He attended The New York Stage & Film Summer Reparatory Company workshops at Vassar College and has written and produced numerous plays that have run in NYC. Jeffrey has worked in the field of communication for more than 30 years, working for numerous newspapers and magazines as a film and music critic and feature writer early in his career. Recently, he has worked as a Citizen Journalism trainer in Prishtina (Kosovo), Skopje (Macedonia), Bahrain, and has coordinated IDEA’s Citizen Journalism Program in 2006 and 2007.
Jeffrey will be teaching the “Journalism and Story Writing” course at the Institute.

Marjan Stojnev will be the tech coordinator (AKA the wizard) for this year’s Institute. His abilities include setting up wireless, broadcasting IDEA Radio, and solving computer/internet problems.

Bor Ceh is currently finishing his degree at the Arthouse College in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His area of focus is multimedia fields in art. Bor is particularly interested in the effect art has on individuals. An accomplished artist himself, Bor has had several art exhibits in Slovenia as early as 2002 and abroad in China and Italy.
Bor will be teaching the “Art as Advocacy” course during this year’s Institute.

Sameer Kosha is currently training to be a barrister in London, UK. He is doing his Bar Vocational Course from the Inns of Court, School of Law and is a member of Lincoln's Inn. He has previously completed his undergraduate studies in Law from University College London.
A debater himself, Sameer has been involved with debate - both as a debater and as coach - since his school years in Pakistan, continuing through to his college student years in London. He has debated in both WSDC and BP style formats and was a member of the Pakistan Debating Team at the World Schools Debating Championships in 2004. As coach, he has coached speakers in school debating teams that have gone on to represent their country at WSDC. He has also coached the Pakistan Team at the World Schools Debating Championships in 2006.

Sameer will be teaching the WSDC course at this year's institute.

Mercedes Pagan, Cum Laude graduate of Bloomfield College, has always possessed a multi-faceted passion for the film industry. As a teenager, Mercedes began experiencing the New York film scene as an aspiring actress/model, working on numerous independent films as well as national commercials and print ads which include Master Card, Visa, Wal-Mart, Dove, Jordache, Fubu Ladies, Latina Magazine and many more. In recent years, Ms. Pagan gained an international view of the film production world while working as an instructor, videographer, and editor in Paris, Italy, the Czech Republic, China, Korea, and Japan.

Jonathan Sadler is a native of Jamaica and a senior at Bloomfield College, where he majors in Interactive Multimedia and the World Wide Web. He is proficient in Flash (animation and Action scripting), Photoshop, Illustrator, Director, and 3D Studio Max. Jonathan's clients have included Rapid True Value, Manley College, Grace Foods, Pan Media, Dragon Radio, Apex Productions, Minnesota State University, and BrokenCurve.com.

Kahlin Whatley grew up in Philadelphia playing in and recording punk rock bands. As he grew, his love of music and thirst for diversity led him to engineer tracks in a variety of musical styles from hip-hop to country to chamber choirs. While obtaining his BA in Music Technology at Bloomfield College, Kahlin got hooked on audio post-production. Since then he has brought his high energy and creative problem-solving to everything from mixing feature length student films, to ADR, to scoring video games.