Meet the Coaches
Sherry Hall
Interim Director of Debate, Associate Director of Debate
Sherry Hall is a life-long debate coach, serving as a debate coach at Harvard University for 36 years. She maintains an active presence in the high school forensics community where she has taught at many summer debate camps and directed the Harvard National Invitational Forensics Tournament from 1988 to 2023. Sherry has been involved with high school summer debate workshops since 1981, first as an instructor and later as a director. She founded and directed the Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops from 2011 through 2023. She also helped to establish and direct the UH Honors Debate Workshop from 2024 through 2025.
Sherry distinguished herself as one of the top college NDT debate coaches. While working at Harvard she coached two NDT Champions, one CEDA Champion, two ADA Varsity Champions, two Copeland Award winners, two NDT top-speakers, the “Debater of the Decade” for the 2000s, and teams that won every college tournament in varsity division at least once. Sherry was named the Ross K. Smith Coach of the Year in 2005. She also received the Toni Nielson “Best of Forensics” Coach Award in 2014 and was recognized as the “Nicest Person in Debate” by the Redlands tournament in 1995. She was recognized as one of the top five debate coaches for the decades from 1990-1999 and 2000-2009, as well as one of the top five judges for the 1990s. in 2024 she was selected for the Lucy Keele Outstanding Service to the Community award.
Sherry has been active in service to the broader college debate community, serving for seventeen years on the Board of Trustees for the NDT where she was the Treasurer and helped to host the National Debate Tournament for those years. She spearheaded efforts to improve the treatment of women in the activity – starting with launching a grass-roots movement in the 1980s to encourage tournament directors, program directors and high school debate workshops to develop ways to make debate a more welcoming environment for women, culminating with the decades-long effort to draft and pass an anti-harassment policy for the National Debate Tournament. She also created the Healthy Debate Initiative in the early 2000s to try to find ways to make tournaments more humane in terms of hours and the food that they served. This Initiative, as with her gender inclusivity initiative, impacted high school speech and debate tournaments alongside the college community.
Sherry distinguished herself as one of the top college NDT debate coaches. While working at Harvard she coached two NDT Champions, one CEDA Champion, two ADA Varsity Champions, two Copeland Award winners, two NDT top-speakers, the “Debater of the Decade” for the 2000s, and teams that won every college tournament in varsity division at least once. Sherry was named the Ross K. Smith Coach of the Year in 2005. She also received the Toni Nielson “Best of Forensics” Coach Award in 2014 and was recognized as the “Nicest Person in Debate” by the Redlands tournament in 1995. She was recognized as one of the top five debate coaches for the decades from 1990-1999 and 2000-2009, as well as one of the top five judges for the 1990s. in 2024 she was selected for the Lucy Keele Outstanding Service to the Community award.
Sherry has been active in service to the broader college debate community, serving for seventeen years on the Board of Trustees for the NDT where she was the Treasurer and helped to host the National Debate Tournament for those years. She spearheaded efforts to improve the treatment of women in the activity – starting with launching a grass-roots movement in the 1980s to encourage tournament directors, program directors and high school debate workshops to develop ways to make debate a more welcoming environment for women, culminating with the decades-long effort to draft and pass an anti-harassment policy for the National Debate Tournament. She also created the Healthy Debate Initiative in the early 2000s to try to find ways to make tournaments more humane in terms of hours and the food that they served. This Initiative, as with her gender inclusivity initiative, impacted high school speech and debate tournaments alongside the college community.
Jack Hightower
Assistant Coach
Jack has been a coach at Georgetown since 2022, coaching teams to the semifinals, quarterfinals, and octafinals of the national debate championship and several top four season-wide finishes. Moreover, at Georgetown, he has coached teams to win or place in the top four at most of the major college debate tournaments, including the Georgetown Tournament, Kentucky Tournament, Dartmouth Round Robin, Kentucky Round Robin, and the Gonzaga Tournament.
Outside of Georgetown, he has coached debate at Bellarmine Prep, Woodward Academy, and Mamaroneck High School. His coaching has included teams to the semifinals and quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions and top finishes at many major high school tournaments.
Outside of Georgetown, he has coached debate at Bellarmine Prep, Woodward Academy, and Mamaroneck High School. His coaching has included teams to the semifinals and quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions and top finishes at many major high school tournaments.
Dawn Pierce
Assistant Coach at Georgetown University, Head Coach at the Georgetown Day School
Dawn is the Head Coach for debate at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., where she has so far coached multiple teams into qualifying for the Tournament of Champions. Prior to coaching at Georgetown Day School, she was a coach at Montgomery Bell Academy, where she coached multiple teams to late elimination rounds of the Tournament of Champions.
Prior to coaching, Dawn competed in policy debate at Emory University, reaching elimination rounds in multiple tournaments, including Semifinals at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Championship tournament.
Prior to coaching, Dawn competed in policy debate at Emory University, reaching elimination rounds in multiple tournaments, including Semifinals at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Championship tournament.