Alumni

Raghu Kakarala is a proud graduate of Norton High School, Class of 1989. While there, he was a member of the Norton High School Forensics team, participating in both Lincoln Douglas debate and Extemporaneous Speaking. He later volunteered as a judge in these categories while attending Kent State University, where he graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science in 1993.

In 1995, Raghu founded his first company, which partnered with TRW to create a Credit Scoring and Reporting system in Mexico. Over the following 20 years, he started and sold a series of advertising agencies and commerce companies. One of these companies, Spunlogic, became a leader in the early days of Social Media. This success led to its acquisition by a Private Equity firm in 2008 and subsequently by the international ad agency Publicis in 2013. During this time, Raghu also co-founded We Engauge, an innovative social media agency in China that was named Social Media Agency of the Year in China in 2010.

He later started a new firm, FortyFour, which became a leader in ECommerce, creaƟng the online Share A Coke program for Coca-Cola and the home delivery platform Coca-Cola En Tu Hogar for Coca-Cola Mexico, among its work for other high-profile clients. FortyFour was acquired by the Private Equity firm Mountaingate Capital in 2020. 

Raghu attributes his success to the skills he learned in the Norton High School Forensics program under the tutelage of OSDA Hall of Famer (1990), William Vaill. He also has the good fortune to be in the Forensics program alongside his classmate Tricia Adams who was elected to the OSDA Hall of Fame in 2024. He believes that the ability to formulate and convey ideas effectively, which he honed in the program, was crucial to the success of the companies that he founded.

Raghu continues to support the Norton High School Forensics program through donations to help fund theater renovations and provide annual scholarship stipends to deserving Norton High School seniors who have participated in the Forensics program.

Raghu currently resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Dolly, and their twin sons.

Michael J Moritz Jr is a 2021 GRAMMY Nominee, a 2022 EMMY Award Nominee, a TONY Award Winner, and an EMMY award-winning Broadway Producer, Record Producer, Mixer, Music Director, Conductor, and Pianist.  During the COVID pandemic, Michael's work has been featured on humanitarian and charity broadcasts and live streams having raised over $50M in 2020-2021 alone.

Michael’s work as a Producer and Mixer span a myriad of genres and formats. Michael has served as Producer, Mixer, Audio Editor, and Music Supervisor for The Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala, Playbill’s Curtain Up: Broadway’s Back, Saturday Night Seder, UNICEF Won't Stop on MSNBC, NYCLU: Sing Out for Freedom, People Magazine's Carousel of Hope, God's Love We Deliver, The New York Philharmonic Winter Gala, and Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical. Michael also produced the Stephen Sondheim Tribute in Times Square to honor the late composer. 

Firmly rooted in between Broadway and Pop, in the past year, Michael has produced, mixed, and collaborated with Adam Lambert, Andrea Bocelli, Annie Lennox, Audra McDonald, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chloe x Halle, Cynthia Erivo, Darren Criss, Deborah Cox, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, HER, Idina Menzel, Il Volo, Jackie Evancho, James Taylor, Jamie Foxx, John Legend, John Mayer, Jordin Sparks, Josh Groban, Journey, Kat McPhee, Keala Settle, Kelli Ohara, Kenny G, Kristin Chenoweth, Leslie Odom Jr, Mellissa Etheridge, New York Philharmonic, Paul Shaffer, Peter Frampton, Sam Smith, Stevie Wonder, and Wayne Brady.

Michael received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination as Producer of Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots for Best Musical Theatre Album. Michael received the 2019 TONY Award for Best Musical as a co-producer of Hadestown and a 2017 Emmy Award for Audio for From Broadway With Love: A Benefit For Orlando. He also received 2 TONY and Olivier award nominations as a co-producer for Broadway/West End’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.  Other notable Broadway producing credits include Big Fish, A Night With Janis Joplin, On The Town, and The Velocity of Autumn. 

Michael has musically directed 200+ theatrical productions throughout the US and UK.  Known as the ‘Musical Director to the Stars,’ Michael has received high praise for his music direction and performance piano work in both Broadway and Pop arenas. 

Michael’s work as a pianist, music director, and arranger is featured on many recordings in the pop and musical theatre genres.  Michael produced the charity single by Broadway for Orlando, "What the World Needs Now”, and served as conductor, music director, and producer for both From Broadway With Love; A Benefit Concert for Orlando, and From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Parkland. 

Michael has developed and pioneered workflow solutions for remote studio mixing, tracking, and producing, now adopted at the highest levels of production in broadcast, film, and studio work. Michael is a frequent collaborator for both Mix Magazine and Recording Magazine.

Ashwani Rajput, MD graduated from Copley High School in 1985. He was a member of the Copley Speech and Debate team and served as the President in his senior year. He competed in Original Oratory and was the Akron District Champion in this event in the 1984-85 school year. After graduating from Copley, he attended Miami University in Oxford, OH and received a degree in zoology, summa cum laude. He went on to receive his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.

He then pursued training in General Surgery at Case Western as well as a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular genetics. He completed his Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. Seventeen years after high school, he finally got his first “real job” as a physician scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. His clinical focus was in gastrointestinal malignancies and he established his basic science laboratory that focused on the key cell signaling pathways responsible for cancer cell metastases.

In 2009, he was recruited to be the inaugural Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of New Mexico where he held an endowed professorship in gastrointestinal cancers. He also served as the Chief of Surgical Services for the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Surgery, responsible for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development. 

In 2019, Dr. Rajput was recruited by Johns Hopkins University to be the Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Washington, DC. He is a Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Rajput continues to maintain a clinical practice, mentor students, residents, fellows and junior faculty. He has published over 100 original scientific papers, reviews, and abstracts in respected peer reviewed journals. In addition to the basic science publications, he has published in clinical outcomes and most recently in addressing health care disparities. Dr. Rajput also hosts a podcast called, Kimmel in DC with Dr. Ashwani Rajput. The Kimmel podcast provides a glimpse at the work done by the researchers and doctor at Johns Hopkins to combat cancer and the leading care that their state-of-the-art facilities provide.

He lives in the Greater Washington DC area with his wife. They share four children and a fur baby. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, playing tennis and the piano.

Dan Glaser is a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department serving overseas as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy to New Delhi, India. His previous diplomatic postings include the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, in the People’s Republic of China. He also served in the Executive Secretariat’s OperaƟons Center at the State Department in Washington D.C.

An alumn of Louisville High School, Dan competed in Speech and Debate from 2002‐2006, he was a state finalist in Extemporaneous Speaking his senior year and represented his district at the 2006 National tournament in Dallas Texas. Dan went on to compete in college Forensics’s at Ohio University from 2006‐2010 where he won multiple national championships, including in Impromptu Speaking (2010), Poetry Interpretation(2010), Communications Analysis and Rhetorical Criticism (2009). He was also the National Forensics Associations Individual Sweepstakes National Champion in 2010. He also coached Extemporaneous Speaking and Rhetorical Criticism for Western Kentucky University from 2011‐2013, where he coached multiple national finalists and a national champion in Extemporaneous speaking.

Dan has a bachelors degree from Ohio University and a masters from Western Kentucky University. Dan has studied Korean and currently speaks Mandarin.

Lauran Woolley has been a proud member and supporter of the OSDA for the past 14 years. She was a member of the Austintown Fitch High School Speech and Debate team from Fall 2008 to Spring 2012. Coached by Mrs. Andrea Reed, she competed in Prose and Poetry all four years of high school, and was a state finalist her senior year. 

After graduating, she immediately returned to Austintown to serve as a division coach under head coaches, Mrs. Andrea Reed and Mrs. Teri Dutton. During those 10 years she coached impromptu speaking, original oratory, and declamation. She has coached numerous students to become state finalists, and in 2020 had her first state champion in original oratory. 

In 2016, she received her Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from Youngstown State University, and in 2020, earned a Master of Science in Education, as well. 

Aside from coaching speech and debate, Lauran is currently a 5th grade teacher at Leetonia Elementary School, as well as a social media personality, known as 'Mrs. Woolley in 5th.' Over the course of the past 3 years, she has amassed more than 6 million followers across Tiktok, Youtube, and Instagram. She is also the co‐host of the #1 teacher podcast in the world, Teachers Off Duty, where she tells relatable stories from the classroom, sharing her victories and struggles, all while advocating for educators everywhere. 

Outside of work, she enjoys time with her loving, supportive husband, Jordan and their Australian Shepherd, Teddy. 

She would like to thank the OSDA Board of Directors for honoring her with this award. She would like to thank her coach and 9th grade English teacher, Andrea Reed, for encouraging her to try‐out for the speech team and for continuing to be an inspiration and mentor to her even to this day. She would also like to thank all past and present members of the Austintown Fitch High School coaching staff, with special thanks to Joe Curry, Jacob Reid, John Mazzucco, and Teri Dutton for continually supporting her in all of her endeavors. She wishes all competitors this weekend the best of luck and a memorable state tournament experience.

https://www.celesteng.com/about

Celeste Ng is the author of three novels, Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts.

Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. Everything I Never Told You was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the ALA’s Alex Award. It has been translated into over thirty languages and is being adapted for the screen.

Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017) was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a best book of the year by over 25 publications, the winner of the Ohioana Award and the Goodreads Readers Choice Award 2017 in Fiction,  and has spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Little Fires Everywhere has been published abroad in more than 30 languages and has been adapted as a limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, was published in October 2022 in the US, Canada, and the UK, and was an instant New York Times bestseller. 

Celeste grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan).  Her fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications, and she is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.

Chris Luzniak is an international math consultant and instructional coach, currently based in Ohio. His nearly 20 years of teaching mathematics began in New York City public schools, where he also founded and coached the Speech and Debate team. Through this combination of teaching and coaching, Chris has worked to develop debate routines that bring student voice and discussion into the math classroom. He coaches teachers in both math and science to develop real-world debate activities for students. Some of his work can be seen in his book Up for Debate! published by Stenhouse Publishers or heard on The DebateMath Podcast. 

https://www.du.edu/about/directory/derek-dubose

I was born and raised in the football capital of America…Canton, OH!  Growing up just minutes from the Pro Football Hall of Fame meant much of my life would be rooted in spirit and tradition, which has made working on a college campus and helping students navigate the college search a perfect fit. My college education led to a B.A. in Communication from The University of Toledo, and an M.E. in Enrollment Management and Policy from the University of Southern California.

I have worked in college admissions for nearly fifteen years at a variety of institutions, most recently including The Ohio State University, and the University of Southern California (USC) before my arrival in the Mile-High City. Outside of the office, you will find me giving back to my professional community as an active member and former Board Director for the National Association for College Admissions Counseling, and as a former college cheerleader and Walt Disney World entertainer; judging and coaching the next generation of competitive cheerleaders.

It is clear to see that I have a variety of interests and from an early age my parents encouraged me to explore all my talents, and to be open to the opportunities that come along the way. Just like your time navigating the college search and time at DU, I hope that you will do just the same.