Elijah Smith is the Director of Debate at Rutgers-Newark University where he coaches parliamentary and policy debate. 2021 marks his 15th year of participation in the debate community where he has found love of all formats of academic debate. The overwhelming majority of that time has been spent advocating for the inclusion of students and coaches from disadvantaged communities.
As a college student, he and his debate partner were the first team to Unite the Crowns of college policy debate by winning the National Debate Tournament and the Cross Examination Debate Association championship. This was the first time a team of African American students had ever won the NDT.
He was also chosen to participate in the Japan Debate Tour where he was the first African American student given the honor of representing American debate with high school and college debate circuits across Japan.
As a coach, he has worked with the winners and top speakers of the TOC and NDCA tournaments as well as numerous First-Round teams in college debate. He is excited to participate in continuing conversations about increasing access in speech and debate.
