Jake Dean

Ascend Academy - Director of Online Middle School Speech & Debate and Congressional Debate Coach

Jake W. Dean is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he researches the political ecology of marine conservation, ecotourism, and outdoor recreation. He also holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona. In 2016, Jake was the first debater to win both the NSDA House National Championship and House Leadership Bowl. He championed Berkeley, the AIA Arizona State Tournament, and ASU in Congress. On the circuit, he also placed in several prominent tournaments including the 2017 NSDA House, Florida Blue Key, The Tradition, and SWSDIT. In speech, Jake championed tournaments such as ASU and Denton Guyer in multiple speech events including Extemp and placed across multiple events at the Arizona State Tournament. In college, he qualified to the 2018 AFA-NIET in four events as part of Arizona State University's 15th place national finish. His coaching champions unique styles, clear rhetoric, and in-round strategy. Coming from a small team with minimal resources, he believes any competitor from any team can succeed. Outside of the academic world, Jake is a competitive bowler and watches too many old sci-fi shows—the likes of Stargate SG1 and Farscape.