Our Staff

Gary Harmon, Camp Director
Gary (Harm) coached high school for many years and is currently the Director of Debate and Forensics at Kansas Wesleyan University. He has also been very successful. His list of accomplishments includes many state high school championships, several Kansas college championships, a national high school championship, several national college championships, the NFL Hall of Fame, the Kansas Debate Coaches Hall of Fame, and the Kansas State Speech Communications Hall of Fame just to mention a few. Harm has also been the director of the Heart of America Institutes for all of its 27 years.

Glenn Nelson
Glenn is currently the coach of Hutchinson High School debate and forensics. His students have been continually successful at the state and national levers in both debate and forensics. Well known for his extempers, Glenn has had students place in the top ten at the NFL National Tournament in extemp.

Ken Troyer
Ken had a very successful high school and college career in policy debate. He then went on to become one of the most successful high school coaches in Kansas. His list of accomplishments also includes many state championships and dozens of national qualifiers. Ken has also made the switch to the college ranks and is currently the Director of Debate and Forensics at Sterling College where his students have captured the Novice National as well as the Kansas Collegiate Championship in Parliamentary debate. Ken has been a regular at the Heart of America Debate Institutes for mare than 10 years, and is a big reason for our many student successes. Ken and Gary will be the Lab Leaders of the Roadrunner Workshop.

Melissa Newton
Melissa is currently the coach of McPherson High School where her students have experienced tremendous success. Melissa is one of the many triumphant stories of Kansas high school debate. Melissa debated successfully for four years at Hutchinson High School. Incidentally, she attended the Heart of America Institutes during that time. Melissa had a stellar collegiate careet in debate, successfully reaching many an elimination round while representing Kansas State Univeristy, while still assisting with the Heart of America Institutes during her summers. She coached at Arizona State University and Kansas State University prior to her current position at McPherson High School. And yes, she has been a part of the Heart of America Institutes during all that time. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our staff.

Nick Owen
Nick is currently the forensic coach at Salina Central High School. Nick has been highly successful and has continually qualified many students to the State Speech Championships and is the coach of the defending 5A State Championship team. Nick’s students have also been regular qualifiers to the NFL and CFL National tournaments.

All offerings and costs of said offerings are subject to change at the discretion of Heart of America Debate. Costs of HOA programs will be locked upon the receipt of a deposit.

Last updated on February 07, 2008.