Coaching Staff

Maggie Berthiaume — Director of Debate (debate@woodward.edu)

The 2024-2025 school year is Ms. Berthiaume's fourteenth at Woodward Academy. Before joining the War Eagles, she was the Director of Debate at Chattahoochee High School and Lexington High School (in Massachusetts) where she led two of the nation's most successful debate teams. She is a past recipient of the National Debate Coaches' Association Educator of the Year Award and the Georgia Forensic Coaches' Association Debate Coach of the Year Award and is a member of the Barkley Forum's prestigious Gold Key Society. She has served on the Executive Board of the NDCA and the GFCA and was a member of the editorial board of Contemporary Argumentation & Debate, the leading academic journal about debate. During the summer, she is an instructor at the Emory National Debate Institute and the Gonzaga Debate Institute and has previously taught at the Spartan Debate Institutes at Michigan State University, the Georgetown Debate Seminar, and the Dartmouth Debate Institute. She is an alum of Dartmouth College where she was an exceptional intercollegiate debater, reaching the quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament and the semifinals of CEDA Nationals.

Dr. Becca Steiner — Associate Director of Debate

Dr. Steiner joined the Woodward Debate Team in the 2024-2025 season. Before joining the War Eagles, she was the Associate Director of Debate at Emory University and a Community Coach for Debate at Pace Academy since Fall 2020. She is a past recipient of the Debate Coach Scholar of the Year award, Critic of the Year award, Matt Grindy Graduate Student Debate Coach of the Year award, the Frank Harrison Award for Excellence in Coaching, and the Scott Odgen Memorial Award for Excellence in Forensics. Since 2021, she has served as the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) unit planner for the National Communication Association (NCA) conference, the leading conference in the field of Communication Studies. During the summer, she is a faculty member at the University of Michigan debate institutes and a senior faculty member at the Emory National Debate Institute. She is an alum of Missouri State University (BA in Art History and Communication Studies), University of Florida (MA in Art History), Wake Forest University (MA in Communication Studies), and University of Georgia (PhD in Communication Studies). 

Gabriel Morbeck — Assistant Debate Coach

Coach Morbeck joined Woodward for the 2023-2024 season. An Assistant Debate Coach at Emory University and a Graduate Research Assistant at Villanova University, Gabriel was an accomplished high school and college debater. He earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Emory and an M.A. in History from Villanova.