Our Leadership
Ann Walsh Henderson
Founder, Executive Director & Head Coach
When her four children were in nursery, elementary and middle school, Ann decided to teach a debate class. Westfield’s first classroom was a cramped elevator lobby, but that didn’t stop the students or Ann from quickly falling in love with debate. That first year, Westfield won the CT State Middle School Debate Competition and took Top Speaker. And so it began!
Westfield’s community grew exponentially from the outset, and Ann moved the operation from an elevator lobby to a church basement to a Quaker meetinghouse. Fifteen years later, she still serves as Westfield’s Executive Director and teaches many of its classes. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of the Connecticut Middle School Debate League.
Ann’s legal background directly informs her teaching practice. She has worked as an appellate attorney for the past 25 years and has always been passionate about civil discourse. After graduating second in her class from UCONN Law School and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, she served as an assistant professor at UCONN Law School, clerked for three federal judges, including the Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, served as a consultant to the Connecticut legislature and started her own practice in appellate law.
Ann has coached many teams that have won an outstandingly high number of debate tournaments, including multiple national and international wins, and many MUN awards. She is most proud of the work Westfield does to help each and every Westfield student find their voice.
Fun facts: Ann also holds a Master’s degree in biochemistry. Ask her about recombinant DNA technology! She also has run 4 marathons and numerous triathlons. She loves to hike, swim, bike, run and ski.
Jennifer Posner
Curriculum Designer, Instructor & Coach
Jen entered the world of debate in 2009 as a parent judge when her son began debating for St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, CT. During the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years she took on the role of volunteer coach at St. Luke’s and expanded the opportunities for students there, joining new leagues and creating a Middle School team. In 2014, she helped launch the CT Middle School Debate League, which she then directed for the 2015-16 school year. She has been working with Westfield Academy debaters since January 2015.
Jen studied American History at Northwestern University and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Jen has seen the tremendous benefits of competitive debate firsthand in her son, her daughter and their teammates. She is passionate about encouraging kids to debate, engaging them in the public policy issues of our time, and helping them to become engaged and informed citizens.
Jen spends her free time of time teaching yoga and traveling.
Ryan Lafferty
International and US Curriculum Designer and Instructor
Ryan is a student at Dartmouth College. He competed with Westfield throughout middle and high school, where he won the Yale Invitational (twice!), the McGill Championships, the Yale Osterweis, the Western Ontario Championship, and broke to elimination rounds at every major British and American parliamentary debate competition on the East Coast. Ryan continues to win debate accolades in college competitions including making it to the Grand Finals of the North American University Debating Championship (NAUDC) as a freshman. Outside of debate, Ryan enjoys going on long walks, debating, pretending he’s not a nerd for liking to do old math problems in his spare time, debating, binge-watching college debate rounds recorded on YouTube, and debating. He’s beyond excited to be working at Westfield!
Althea Turley
Summer Camp Director
Althea Turley is a current professional working in the biotech sphere, but has come back to run our summer camp after missing the community of continuous learners and curious, motivated, independent thinkers which the corporate world often lacks. In addition to staffing our summer camp back in 2019, Althea also directed the world’s largest secondary school Model United Nations conference in NYC, served as an advisor to the board of the educational non-profit IMUNA which is formally associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, and she previously was an instructor at IMUNA’s in-person international MUN summer camp in 2018. Althea has traveled the world for Model UN and other educational initiatives, going across the US and Canada, Italy, The Public of Georgia, Ghana, and other places to teach eager young students.
Connor Henderson
Operational Consultant
Connor studied the Philosophy and Sociology of education at UC Berkeley, where he received his Master's in education for his thesis considering the role of cultural capital strategies in educational outcomes across socioeconomic backgrounds. Previously, he graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, where he examined the nexus of social inequality, culture and politics in international contexts and was a member of the Parliamentary Debate Team. He has a broad academic grounding across the humanities and social sciences--such as Education, Economics, Philosophy, Sociology, International Relations, and History--and an equally unwieldy number of intellectual interests, including climate change, AI, strategic-thinking (both theory and practice!) and what monopolies do to democracy. In the last 6 years, he has taught more than a dozen courses on these and other topics. In addition to studying and his work for Westfield, in the past few years Connor has developed programs and written major grants for education non-profits in Hartford and the Bay Area and served as a staff writer for the prestigious MIT Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Once started to stave off the accumulation of student debt, these days Connor runs his tutoring and college advising business on a more ad-hoc basis (but feel free to inquire!). He currently lives in Denver, Colorado, where free hours are spent reading, free days are spent recreating in the Rockies, and free weeks are spent looking for the new in a world that never ceases to provide it. If students (or parents) want to know more about Westfield, life in a PhD program, cultural capital, or ultralight backpacking, feel free to reach out: admin@westfieldacademy.net and ask Deidre to put you in contact with me. Be true to yourself out there, and remember: "the voyage of the best ship is the zigzag line of a hundred tacks" (Emerson!).
Administrative Staff
Program and Communications Coordinator
Brittany is a mother of 3, one of whom is a former Westfield student. She is excited to be a part of the Westfield team. She keeps everything running smoothly at Westfield - answering your emails and calls and expertly organizing all the many details that allow us to provide students with the very best debate and MUN learning experience. When she’s not sewing and crafting, you can find her cheering for her kids in sports, MUN, Science Olympiad and the theater and running the PTO at her daughter’s school.
Madeleine Chill
Senior Marketing and Communications Consultant
Madeleine Chill is a writer, translator, and social media manager who lives between Israel and the US. She earned her MA in English Literature and Literary Translation at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where her thesis focuses on translating Puerto Rican narratives of the Spanish-American War. An award-winning Westfield alumna and former Westfield teacher herself, she graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Spanish from the University of Connecticut in 2019. A native English speaker, Madeleine is also fluent in Spanish and Hebrew and is an avid lover of language. When not feeling wordy, Madeleine is usually baking something, overfilling her apartment with plants, or hiking in the nearest forest.
Deidre Chill
Events Coordinator
Deidre is a student at Manchester Community College. The youngest of four children, at 12 years old Deidre followed in her siblings’ footsteps to join the Westfield Academy of Debate and Model UN. Unsurprisingly, she ended up loving it and is now happy to be back as part of the Westfield team. Check out the homepage of our website to see a much younger Deidre ‘Finding her Voice’. She lives with her cat Pablo who loves to eat tuna, snuggle and wreak havoc on her apartment. Deidre spends most of her free time adventuring with her friends, playing video games or cooking.
Our Teachers, Tutors & Assistants
Ryan is a graduate of Yale University where he earned a double major in astrophysics and philosophy, Ryan has also been active in debate since his freshman year of high school. Ryan is a passionate advocate for working toward educational equity in the United states, and has worked to distribute SAT and ACT prep material to under resourced communities. He truly believes people who practice Debate and MUN acquire the ability to show the world that their voice is powerful. Ryan looks forward to hearing all of your powerful voices! He is so excited to be a part of the Westfield community!
Ryan Ofman
International and US Debate Instructor
Model U.N. Instructor
Eli Pallrand is a student at Cornell University focusing on Government and History. He is the Vice-President of the Cornell debate team. He has coached and taught debate for the past 6 years. Last year, competing in British Parliamentary debate, he made it to the elimination rounds of the World Universities Debating Championship, and the finals of multiple tournaments across America and Europe. Eli and his partner Meghana (also one of our amazing Westfield teachers) most recently won first place at the 2023 North American Championships! Outside debate and school, Eli likes to cook and write.
Eli Pallrand
International and US Debate Instructor
Maddie is a student at Mount Holyoke College where she studies philosophy and politics. She began debating in high school and has been arguing ever since. For Maddie, debate has been about the debate experience, but also about coaching others. As team captain Maddie developed a training program for new debaters which has since been adopted by the team. This experience helped her develop a passion for teaching and working with young people. On campus, Maddie serves as class board president and is a member of the sailing team. When she is not working on her thesis, she enjoys hiking with her two dogs, salsa dancing, and contemplating the nature of freewill. Maddie is ecstatic to be at Westfield again this summer.
Maddie Migliorino
Brendan is a student in the UConn Honors program and is Captain of the Model UN team at UConn. He is double majoring in Economics and Finance. In his free time he enjoys lacrosse, mountain biking, and reading anything written by Brandon Sanderson. He debated and attended MUN conferences for Westfield for around three years, and during this time he met some of his closest friends. MUN and debate have positively impacted nearly every facet of his life, and he hopes to bring similar impacts to new Westfield students!
Brendan Davis
International and US Debate Instructor
Evan has been coaching debate for ten years. In that time his students have won more than two hundred awards in multiple leagues and styles, including most recently winning the Tournament of Champions and the New York state championship. Less recently, his students have been finalists at the Chinese national championship, and winners of the Connecticut state championship. As a debater, he has won awards in parliamentary, extemporaneous, and policy debate, including Connecticut's state championship. He is the former Director of the National High School Debate League of China and the current Head Debate Coach at the Dalton School. He is a graduate of Columbia University with a philosophy degree.
Evan Streams
Debate Instructor
Patrick has been debating at Westfield since he was 5, so if you encounter a picture of a tiny red-headed boy on this site, it’s probably him. He has won 14 high school debate tournaments, including Yale and Vassar. He was on the 3-person oral IPPF team that became the World Champions and he was on the first American team to win the McGill British Parliamentary Invitational. He was twice selected to compete on the American team at the Worlds High School Debate Competition in Australia and South Africa. In total, he has won 43 individual and team high school debate awards and 20 awards at high school MUN Conferences including 6 Best Delegates. During his senior year of high school, he and his partner were ranked the Second High School Parliamentary Debate team in the country and the First in the East Coast. Patrick has been teaching classes at Westfield for the past two years. He continues his debate success on the collegiate level at Middlebury College, where he is the Captain of the Debate team. In addition to teaching and tutoring at Westfield he has served as the volunteer coordinator for the FORA (Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America) Rohingya debate program. He enjoys making homemade pasta, hiking in the Green Mountains of Vermont and playing with his dogs.
Patrick Henderson
Meghana is a student at Cornell University studying Industrial Labor Relations, with minors in Religious Studies, Inequality Studies, Migration Studies, and Law & Society Studies. Originally from Southington, CT Meghana was part of Westfield for most of her high school debate career, focusing on high school parliamentary debate. Some accolades in high school include winning Yale Osterweis tournament and finaling at the same tournament in her last competition, finaling in her first tournament ever (Vassar Novice) and multiple state qualifications and best speakers for CDA.
In college, Meghana is captain of the British Parliamentary team at Cornell, and was a quarterfinalist at US National Championships and North American Championships, Finalist at Bates Pro Am , Colgate and Duke, and 3rd best speaker at LSE WGMs to name a few. Meghana and her partner Eli (also one of our amazing Westfield teachers) most recently won first place at the 2023 North American Championships! Her judging accomplishments include judging outrounds at the Worlds University Debating Championships in 2021, Princeton IV, and Australasian Champs.
Meghana is super excited to come back to Westfield and meet all the new debaters! Be sure to ask her about her reality TV addiction, or how many cups of coffee she has had in a week!
Meghana Kandarpa
Debate Instructor
Debate and Model U.N. Instructor and Tutor
Debate Instructor
Seamus is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in Computer Science. He was homeschooled until college and is still a homeschooler at heart. He debated with Westfield throughout high school and has loved teaching at camp for the past two years. Seamus also enjoys word puzzles, fiddle music, and photographing birds.
Seamus Connor
Marcus has been with Westfield since 2019 and is currently a student at Clarke University. Marcus was homeschooled for most of his life and is extremely grateful for the opportunities he’s had to explore his passions. He’s always been interested in big ideas, and Westfield has been a great place to discuss and learn about all kinds of global issues. He’s taken Debate and Model UN classes as well as participated in Debate Camp. Now he enjoys teaching new debate students, though he never stops trying to learn more about debate himself! His debate accomplishments include being, along with his partner, the first American team to win the University of Western Ontario Spring British Parliamentary Tournament, being a finalist at the McGill Winter Bonanza, top breaking and getting 2nd place speaker at the Hong Kong Interschool Debating Championship, and taking 3rd place team at the Loomis Debate Tournament. In his spare time, Marcus enjoys playing guitar and piano, hiking, and landscape and storm photography.
Marcus Palumbo
Caley Henderson
Advanced Topics Instructor & Website Designer
Debate Instructor
Caley is a writer and educator with a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Oregon State University’s Creative Nonfiction MFA program. She has a particular interest in reading and writing environmental narratives. After teaching high school English for two years at Sturgis Public Charter School on Cape Cod, Caley spent a year designing Westfield’s new website and immersing herself in the world of goat farming. All of her work is informed by her time spent earning her bachelors degree with a self-designed major in Education: Privilege & Poverty (as well as a minor in Chinese language and literature) at Middlebury College. While an undergrad, she was an active member and sometime president of the Middlebury Debate Society, and was selected to compete at the World Universities Debate Championships and APDA nationals. These days, when she isn’t writing, teaching or wrangling Squarespace, Caley is probably reading a good book in a sunny spot or else climbing to the top of something tall.
Debate Instructor
Sinan Ozbay graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a masters in finance. He is now working as a researcher in computational biology at Duke. While an undergraduate student, he served as the president of the Princeton Debate Panel. In APDA, He holds the record as the youngest person to become the American Parliamentary Debate Association National Champion. In British Parliamentary debate, he was the runner-up at the World Universities Debating Competition. He also competed extensively in Public Forum debate during high school, championing and top speaking at the Harvard Round Robin Tournament. He is extremely excited to be coming back to teach at Westfield!
Sinan Ozbay
Model U.N. Instructor
Luka is a student at Yale University studying Global Affairs and Human Rights. He was born in Austin, Texas, but has since moved intercontinentally six times. He fell in love with Model UN as a student in Brazil, and competed successfully throughout high school before turning to organizing MUN conferences in college. His interests in MUN and international affairs have brought him to a position doing research for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which he is ecstatic about. On campus, Luka also swims for the Club Swimming team, works for the library, writes for several student publications, and is part of Yale’s climate action organization, Green. At any given moment, he is certainly caffeinated and being inexplicably loud, and he is beyond excited to share his passion and enthusiasm as a MUN teacher this year!
Luka Gawlinski Silva
Eira Prakash
Debate Instructor
Julia Schroers is a student at Wesleyan University. She was a Westfield student and camper for almost six years, and has adored her time in the Westfield community. As a Westfield student, she was an accomplished debate competitor, notably winning the Yale Osterweis, and the New York Parliamentary Debate League Championships, and breaking to elimination rounds at the Vassar Invitational, The University of Western Ontario Tournament, the Harvard World Schools Tournament, and becoming a three-time finalist at the McGill Winter Bonanza. She loves the debate community and dedicates most of her time to it, as an Equity Officer for the New York Parliamentary Debate League, an after-school program debate teacher at a local middle school, and, of course, as a Westfield teacher. When she isn’t teaching young minds to win arguments with their parents, she enjoys painting, writing, spending time with her friends, family, and slightly overweight dogs. She is an active community member, involved in her local synagogue and as a teen trainer for the Anti-Defamation League. She is also a proud caretaker of many houseplants. She loves Westfield and being a part of the debate community!
Julia Schroers
Debate Instructor
Debate & Model U.N. Instructor
Benjamin graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University, where he majored in political science and minored in philosophy and history. He served as the vice president of the Rutgers University Debate Union for the past two years. He frequently competed in the American Parliamentary Debate Association, where he and his partner were one of the 35 most competitively successful teams in the league and qualified for the national championship. He was also politically involved on campus as a member of the Rutgers University Democrats and volunteered with Rutgers University for Warren during the primaries in 2020.
Benjamin debated with Westfield for seven years and, in that time, attended over sixty debate competitions, receiving dozens of awards, including winning multiple competitions. He was a finalist at the Yale Osterweis competition three years in a row and won the competition two of those years. As a sophomore, he was a member of the Westfield International Public Policy Forum team that won the World Title. Benjamin was on the first American team to make the final round at the McGill University Invitational. As a senior, Benjamin won the Yale Invitational, the Vassar competition, and the Yale Osterweis competition, three of the most prestigious parliamentary debate competitions on the East Coast, with three different partners. In his junior and senior years of high school, Benjamin worked as an instructor for Westfield’s debate and Model U.N classes and at camp in 2019 and 2021. Benjamin is very excited to be back at Westfield and teaching again.
Benjamin Mione
Eira has been a debating with Westfield since she was in the 6th grade! She loves arguing, and debate is the perfect place to drive her energy. Eira loves debate competitions and has been incredibly successful: She won Yale Osterweis two years in a row; was a finalist at the Yale Invitational; was a semifinalist at the University of Western Ontario High School Championships. Eira teaches middle school and elementary debate classes! When she's not debating, Eira likes to hike, play guitar, and enjoy a good bagel!
Hannah Flückiger
Debate and Model U.N. Instructor
Hannah is a student at American University in Washington D.C., where she is earning her Bachelor's Degree in political science and philosophy, as well as receiving a certificate in political theory through American University's Lincoln Scholars program. She has been with Westfield since 2017, during which time she competed in both Model UN and Debate, receiving recognition from Yale University (2021, 2022), Global Classrooms International, in partnership with the Lebanese-American University (2019, 2020), and the Connecticut Debate Association (2020) for her contributions to her committees and debate rounds. During her time at Westfield, she also had the opportunity to volunteer with Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA) as a teacher, where she taught students how to improve their oral advocacy skills through public speaking. She is currently working with the National Foundation for Women Legislators as a student intern, where she is able to work closely with passionate, politically-minded women. In her free time, Hannah loves to crochet, go for long drives, and camp/hike in beautiful places (preferably with one of her dogs)!
