Our Team
Veronica Finkelstein, Director
Veronica is an attorney at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia. She practices in the area of litigation, concentrating in construction and commercial litigation and handles matters for owners, contractors, design-builders, design professionals, sureties, vendors and subcontractors. Veronica has represented clients in a variety of construction law matters in state and federal courts, as well in mediation. She has litigated numerous disputes involving professional negligence in design. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Veronica is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Section. She has published articles, including those in the Legal Intelligencer's Young Lawyers Supplement, The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, and Speaker and Gavel.
Veronica was a high school debater for Fox Chapel High School in Pittsburgh, PA. Currently, she is the Coach of Strawberry Mansion High School's Mock Trial Team. She is a Judge in the Citywide Mock Trial Competition and a Judge for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
Veronica is an honors graduate of the Emory University School of Law and an honors graduate of Pennsylvania State University.
Susan L. Hayes, Director
Susan (Linderman) Hayes is President of LabSim, Inc., a marketing consulting firm specializing in laboratory diagnostics. She was previously Director of Marketing at DuPont Medical Products (acquired by Dade Behring in 1996) and Genesis HealthCare Corp.
She is coach of the Unionville HS forensics team, started in 2002. The team has grown from 1 student to over 40, with several students qualifying for the Catholic Forensics League Grand National Tournament. She holds a BA/MA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in Speech Communication where she was the Individual Events team coach as a graduate student and captain of the Debate team as an undergraduate. She was nationally ranked in Extemporaneous Speaking throughout her college career and won the prestigious Mangum Award for outstanding senior orator at UNC. She served as coach and chairperson at Clemson University following graduation from UNC.
Prior to college, she was captain of the Madison High School Forensics team. She qualified to the National Forensics League National Tournament three times, placing 7th in her senior year. She also was the champion of Emory University's prestigious Barkley Forum competition twice. She graduated with the second highest number of points out of 126,000 members of National Forensics League.
She firmly believes in the value of forensics in education and has started debate programs at high schools in New Canaan CT, Kinston, NC, and Richmond, VA. She designed and ran debate workshops for the state of Connecticut and served as an assistant debate coach at Lexington HS, MA. The lack of forensics programs in public schools is of grave concern and one of the primary reasons she continues to coach and start programs in local high schools.
Grant Keener, Director
Grant is the prelaw advisor at Drexel University, a position he has held since the summer of 2005. In addition to his prelaw duties, Grant has been closely involved with developing the admissions program for Drexel's new College of Law. He previously served as Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Illinois College of Law, as Director of Admissions at Touro Law Center (Long Island, NY) and as the Assistant Director of Law Admissions at his alma mater, the Ohio Northern University College of Law. While in law school, Grant was active in the student bar association, serving as a class representative, vice president and president. He earned his undergraduate degree from Penn State University.
Grant previously served on the Board of Directors of Prairie Center Health System, a non-profit substance abuse treatment organization headquartered in Urbana, IL. He is the Managing Member of Kissel Hill Pizza, LLC, which operated UnCommon Pizza in Lititz, PA.
Grant resides in Lancaster County and is a member of the Pennsylvania bar.
Matthew Scarola, Managing Director & Director
Education: B.A in Political Science, Columbia University, magna cum laude
Biography: Matthew was the assistant debate coach at Lexington High School (MA) for four years, where he helped several students qualify to States, Nationals and the TOC. He was also successful in college parliamentary debate; by his second year of competition he was ranked 8th in the country and held a position on the executive board of the American Parliamentary Debate Association. In high school, Matthew was the Champion of the Harvard National Invitational, Lexington Winter Classic, and Big Bronx tournaments. He was also the runner-up at the 2004 CFL National Tournament and had a 15-1 outround record at TOC bid tournaments his senior year.
Email: mscarola@perspectivesdebate.org
Ali Huberlie, Program Director & Director
Education: B.A Candidate in Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Biography: Ali Huberlie is a member of the highly prestigious Civic Scholars program at the University of Pennsylvania, a four-year honors program designed for fifteen of the top Civic leaders in each class. For her Ali's high school volunteer work has been recognized by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, where she was one of 250 leaders selected out of over 100,000 applicants as a Coco-Cola Scholar, and by the state of New Hampshire as a Granite State Scholar. Ali was ranked the #1 ranked debater in the country during the 2005-2006 season. She was a three-time qualifier to the Tournament of Champions and a two-time qualifier to the CFL Grand National Tournament. She was the champion of the Harvard Invitational and was the runner-up at the MBA and Greenhill round robins.
Email: ahuberlie@perspectivesdebate.org
Alex Anderson
Education: B.S Candidate in Economics, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Biography: He is a Tournament Director for the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic Debate Invitational. At Penn, Alex appears weekly as political commentator for the university TV station. In addition to his studies, Alex has completed projects for the Nevada Power Company and The Enterprise Center, where his work helped organize a yearly Business Plan Competition for Philadelphia city students. Alex competed in speech and debate for four years at Green Valley High School outside of Las Vegas, where he was Nevada State Champion in both Domestic Extemporaneous and Public Forum. He was a three-time qualifier to NFL Nationals and advanced to the top thirty teams in Public Forum.
Email: aanderson@perspectivesdebate.org
Alok Choksi
Education: B.A Candidate in Philosophy and Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Biography: Alok has had a number of internships at Vanderbilt University's surgical oncology department and SMS Holdings in Nashville, TN. At Penn, Alok is a member of the competitive dance team. Alok Choksi competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Student Congress, and Extemporaneous Speaking events during high school at Battle Ground Academy, TN, where he was a top, nationally-ranked debater in Lincoln-Douglas debate. He was a two-time qualifier to NFL Nationals, where he finished with a Semi-Finalist performance in Student Congress and a Top 30 finish in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Besides debate, he was also the captain of his tennis team and played violin for the Nashville Symphony.
Email: achoksi@perspectivesdebate.org
Evan Medina
Education: B.A Candidate in Political Science and History, University of Pennsylvania
Biography: Evan is a Fellow for the Obama Campaign in Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale. Previously, Evan debated for four years at Nova High School in Florida, where he was the 2006 Florida State Champion. He was a two-time Finalist NFL Nationals and placed 5th at the Harvard Debate Invitational. Evan has coached at the Florida Forensics Institute for two years.
Email: emedina@perspectivesdebate.org
Tim McKenzie
Education: B.A Candidate in International Relations, University of Pennsylvania where he majors in International Relations and minors in Geology.
Biography: Tim debated for four years in Lincoln-Douglas debate at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, California, where he was a National Merit Semifinalist and National AP Scholar. As a debater, Tim was a Semi-Finalist at the California State Championships, a Finalist at the James Logan Invitational, and reached outrounds at the NFL National Tournament. At Penn, Tim participates in Model UN and Sirius, an international development journal. Tim is fluent in Spanish and French and is currently studying Russian.