Draft:Eric DiMichele

Eric DiMichele is an American writer and academic administrator. He is the Director of Community Engagement and coach of the Speech and Debate Society at Regis High School. Through his involvement in the club since 1983, the Hearn, as it is known, has become ranked first nationally by the National Speech and Debate Association as of March 2024.

Education
Eric DiMichele attended Colgate University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then went on to Columbia University where he achieved a Master of Arts degree.

Career
After attending university, Eric DiMichele went on to become a comedy writer. DiMichele abandoned this pursuit and joined the Regis faculty in 1982 and has served as the school’s Director of Admissions from 1993-2023, teaches history and political science, and is the schools speech and debate coach. Eric Di Michele has been training speakers and debaters for over thirty-five years. His involvement with competitive forensics began at Regis High School, where since his arrival in 1983, the school's Hearn Speech and Debate Society has competed continuously in a range of speaking formats, including public forum debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, Worlds Schools Debate, extemporaneous speaking, declamation, original oratory, oral interpretation of literature, dramatic interpretation, and humorous interpretation. His students have won twenty-nine New York state championships in the last thirty-five years and several national championships, including the 2017 United States Worlds Schools Debate championship. He was the NSDA’s National Coach of the Year in 2008 and is a member of the NSDA’s Hall of Fame. Seven of his former debaters have won the US national college parliamentary debate championship - four for Harvard, two for Yale and one for Princeton. For 18 years, DiMichele also worked for the Open Society Foundation and the International Debate Education Association instructing young people around the world in debate and human rights advocacy. He has taught debate in over thirty countries.

Eric DiMichele has been seen as a mentor to many of Regis's famous graduates including Colin Jost and Jim Sciutto.