SuperDebate is building competitive debate infrastructure for adults. Local clubs, a technology platform, and championship tournaments designed to give millions of people a place to compete with their minds the way others compete with their bodies. We have run events across Chicago, Portland, and Bali, and just finished our first international tournament in Roatan, Honduras.
As we scale, we need advisors who understand debate not just as a competitive activity, but as a learning system, a social technology, and a framework for developing better thinkers. To help us build on that foundation, we are bringing in someone whose career sits at the intersection of debate education, institutional leadership, and AI research.
John is the Co-Founder of DebaterHub, where he leads NSF-SBIR, AWS, and NAIRR-supported research on how artificial intelligence can strengthen debate-based learning. His work on Augmented Debate-Centered Instruction and Multi-Agent Language Systems is aimed at expanding access to high-quality debate education, particularly for underserved communities.
Before co-founding DebaterHub, John spent years building and leading nationally recognized debate programs. At The College Preparatory School, he helped lead one of the top speech and debate programs in the country, coached a national champion debater, and helped pioneer the paperless debating movement that reshaped how the debate community prepares and competes. He later served as Director of Debate at Head-Royce School, where he continued exploring innovative approaches to debate instruction and the early integration of AI into learning environments.
John has also taught at the University of Mary Washington, The Bay School of San Francisco, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and the University of Vermont. Across K-12 education, higher education, and startup research, he has developed a rare combination of practical coaching experience, institutional leadership, and forward-looking product vision.
Beyond the classroom and competition, John has published work on AI-human pluralistic collaboration, AI pluralism in communication and argumentation, and responsible AI integration in debate-centered instruction. He is not just someone who understands debate as a competitive activity. He understands it as a learning system, a social technology, and a powerful framework for developing better thinkers.
That combination of deep debate experience, educational leadership, and serious AI research is exactly what SuperDebate needs at this stage.
We are building a new category. Competitive debate for adults has never had professional infrastructure. As we scale from live events to a national league, John's perspective on debate as both a competitive format and a learning system will be invaluable. His work at the intersection of AI and argumentation aligns directly with where SuperDebate is headed.
As an advisor, John will help shape how SuperDebate thinks about debate as pedagogy, not just performance. That means bringing research-informed thinking to how we design formats, develop training tools, and build technology that makes people genuinely better arguers and thinkers. It also means drawing on his deep network in the debate education world as we expand into new markets.
We are assembling a team of people who understand debate deeply, bring real institutional experience, and see what this can become. John is exactly that. We are thrilled to have him on board.
If you want to see what we are building, our next event is the Chicago Debate Showcase. Details at superdebate.org. And if you want to help build the future of competitive discourse, reach out. We are always looking for great people.
John Connor
Founder & CEO, SuperDebate
superdebate.org
