“There is always going to be a place for someone who can speak well,” Kate Alexander says, “and someone who can think quickly, critically, and analytically.”
The Shepherd University Debate and Forensics Team has appointed a new coach for the 2025-26 academic year. Meet Kate Alexander, the Shepherd University alumna who plans to elevate the Debate and Forensics team’s skills, both in competition and in life.
Alexander first began her career in debate and forensics in high school before joining the Shepherd University Debate and Forensics Team in 2001.
While in one of Dr. Joyce Webb’s public speaking classes here at Shepherd, she was pulled aside and asked to join the team. “I thought I was in trouble. I was like, ‘What did I do?’ and she said, ‘Welcome to debate and forensics, you’re on the team,’” she recounted.
She then spent five years on the team, serving as team captain for more than three of those years. After graduating, she returned to help coach and judge the team, but, unfortunately, lost contact with the team after Dr. Webb retired.
Alexander has had a flourishing career in the fields of journalism and strategic communication, working as a political journalist for 10 years before working at a lobbying firm in Washington, D. C. She is now the director of communications and marketing at a nonprofit organization. “Public speaking has been part of every piece of my job,” she explained.
When the team learned that she had moved back to the eastern panhandle, they reached out and asked if she would be willing to help out with the team.
“I see the vision that Coach Katie has, for not just the team as a whole, but for every single individual that makes it up,” said Phoenix Herman, president of the Debate and Forensics Team, when asked about her experience working with Alexander.
Alexander’s biggest goal for the 2025-26 academic year is to help her students grow their skills, both as competitors and as professionals. “I’m really trying to not just elevate them in competition, but give them the skills that once they leave [Shepherd], they’ve got something to walk into any job they want and be a competitive candidate,” she said with ambition.
She has been challenging her students to try new styles of debate, along with new events entirely. “I would like to see them take that challenge, internalize it, and push themselves,” she said. In hopes of preventing complacency, she plans on taking her students to various debate and forensics circuits and showing them other levels of competition.
The team is hoping to put on a showcase in November, in which they will be performing pieces they have taken to competition and demonstrating their elevated debating skills.
The Shepherd University Debate Team is open to all undergraduate students here at Shepherd University, regardless of major or year.
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