Matt Vassar

Matthew Warren Vassar is a U.S. educator, specializing in speech, debate, and rhetoric.

A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Vassar now works in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. He holds the distinction of being the youngest coach in National Forensic League history. He is the Assistant Director of Forensics for Stanford University's program in the National Parliamentary Debate Association, working under Director Matthew Fraser. He is also the programmer and developer of the National Parliamentary Debate Location message board.

He has previously worked for the Stanford National Forensic Institute and Emory National Debate Institute and recently joined the Stanford Peace Project.

He was previously a keynote speaker at the 2004 convention of the International Debate Education Association in Istanbul, Turkey.

Vassar has also been active in politics. During his time in Alaska, he worked in the office of then-Governor Tony Knowles. In 2004, he balanced his time between Alaska and California, supporting Democrat Knowles' unsuccessful challenge for a U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski and working for the successful campaign of moderate Republican Chris Nguyen in his race for a local senate seat in Santa Clara County, California. Vassar also endorsed Green Party candidate David Cobb for President, due to his dissatisfaction with both John Kerry and George W. Bush.

External links

* [http://www.npdl.net/ National Parliamentary Debate League] A message board and resource site for high school parliamentary debaters, programmed and developed by Matt Vassar.