Meet The Team

Executive Director
Cindi Timmons
Cindi Timmons brings over four decades of debate experience and program leadership to the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance. She is excited to share her love of lifelong learning and her extensive teacher and student training background with educators in DISD middle and high schools to help every student develop their voice, pursue their dreams, and contribute to their communities.
During her decades of experience in public and private schools, she has coached dozens of national and state champions in ten different events (including four different debate formats) while winning numerous coaching and teaching awards. She has also served the speech and debate community in local, state, national, and international leadership positions; in professional development training; in contributing articles to professional publications, both domestic and international; and in summer institute work. As part of her advocacy work, she created a summer program for rising high school students to help overcome content and skill gaps and spent extensive time working to help gifted and talented students from lower-income areas get the assistance they needed to achieve at the highest levels possible
As Co-Head Coach and Team Manager of the national USA Debate program from 2013-23, she helped lead the team to its best record in over two decades, including the World Championship in 2023. She also led the national team in public debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, and at the Republican Club in New York City for the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.
She is a member of both the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame and the Texas Forensic Association Hall of Fame. She is actively engaged in promoting the cause of women and minorities in debate and has hosted four national tournaments for the National Speech & Debate Association, all in the Dallas metroplex.
In her spare time, she loves reading, and writing, and traveling. She is a wife and proud mother of two sons.

Program Director
Evan Gilbert
Evan began his debate journey at JBS Law Magnet in Dallas ISD before joining the debate team at the University of Texas at Dallas. He credits debate for "helping me become the person I am, and I'm proud to represent DUDA because I can help others grow and evolve through debate to be the best versions of themselves."
Evan brings passion and energy to his work with students and teachers. He has presented programs at the Texas Speech Communication Association's annual convention on Using a Community Advocacy Approach to Teaching Policy Debate and on Middle School Debate Research.
Evan is excited for his second year with the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance and looks forward to working to expand debate access across the city.

Tournament Director
Gabe Sanchez
Gabe began his debate career in middle school with DUDA. After graduating from JBS Law Magnet, Gabe attended the University of Texas at Dallas where he continued to debate. Gabe enjoys serving the students and coaches of the District through tournament administration.

Administrative Director
Ce'Ce More
Ce'Ce More has worked with talented individuals large and small for many years. After college, she began working in public education and served in one of the few positions where she got to spend time with each of the 1000 students on her campus. As her team leader and champion for the arts, she supported the school performing arts productions and was the head of the yearbook committee.
Her leadership skills and creative experiences have served her well as the Office Administrator for Ryan Law Partners. She has worked with Dallas Urban Debate since 2018, and supports our programs by: managing tournament registration & event logistics for over 70 campuses, engaging volunteers, and overseeing data collection & reporting.
In her free time, she enjoys pursuing her passions and helping others. She most enjoys painting, swing-dancing, and rescuing animals. She has helped many fur babies find wonderful homes, including a few that have found their homes with her.

Social Media Coordinator
Kay Roberts
Kay is a creative professional who has been working with children and performing arts, since she was a child. Education did not come easily for her, and it gave her a passion for helping others find their strengths. In her youth she performed, choreographed, and directed in musical theater, competitive puppetry, and mixed media art.
Her passion for education and helping others led her to work with the local library, home education classes, and the Sci-Tech Co-op. It also allowed her the opportunity to establish a support group for women and mothers. In an effort to reclaim her own education, she enrolled her son in a charter school and returned to college. She received her AA in Education from Mountain View College and her BS from Texas Tech's College of Education 2+1 program.
After university, she went on to work in a variety of Special Education positions. She established programs and curricula for student leadership clubs, social-emotional development, and junior coach training.
In her free time, she loves writing, knitting, singing, and dancing. But she most loves watching her son shine as the drumline section leader in the marching band.
She is excited to join Dallas Urban Debate and continue to help showcase others as they pursue their dreams!

Programming Team
Alex Baez
Alex has been involved in debate for over 10 years. He started debating at Alex W. Spence middle school and continued debating through his years at Law Magnet. He earned a scholarship to debate in college for the University of Texas of Dallas, where he competed for 5 years. Alex earned several speaker awards in regional tournaments and also earned a place in the Double Octofinals and Octofinals of the Cross Examination Debate Association national tournament.
Alex has coached and judged all over the country and comes to us with a background in political science. He’s judged debaters from different backgrounds and areas of expertise and hopes to help our students at DUDA grow as debaters with his experience and wisdom.

Mentor Program Coordinator
Sita Yerramsetti
Sita Yerramsetti has been involved in competitive debate for over a decade. She grew up in Houston, TX and learned a variety of debate formats while attending The Kinkaid School. As a high school policy debater for Kinkaid, she reached the late elimination rounds of several major national tournaments and twice qualified to the Tournament of Champions for the top 72 teams in the country.
Sita has also long been committed to expanding access to debate through supporting urban debate programs. In high school, she volunteered with the Houston Urban Debate League (HUDL) as a judge and after-school mentor. As an undergraduate, she worked with the Boston Debate League (BDL) as the president of Harvard College Mentors for Urban Debate, coordinating groups of Harvard students to mentor BDL debate teams after school and judge at BDL tournaments.
After graduating from Harvard with a BA in Applied Mathematics and Global Health & Health Policy, Sita moved to Dallas to begin her career as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Now in Switzerland for a one-year program, she is excited to continue working to provide high-quality debate instruction in Dallas by coordinating the relaunch of DUDA's mentor program and supporting other DUDA initiatives.
In her free time, Sita enjoys reading, watching sports and classic films, and traveling.

Donor and Alumni Relations Coordinator
Esmerelda Alejo
An Irma Rangel and DUDA alum, Esme graduated from Austin College and now works at a charter school in Dallas. She has a passion for finding supporters for DUDA so that the organization can continue to expand its services.

Programming Team
Rafael Sanchez
Rafael Sanchez debated policy for 4 years at the Law Magnet and debated for the policy debate team at UTD for 3 years. He is also an assistant debate coach for Coppell High School where he has coached multiple TFA state champions. He is currently majoring in math in hopes to become a teacher so he can bring the love of debate for more kids

Tournament Team
Bianca Salazar
Bianca was a DUDA debater for W.T. White HS, before attending and graduating from UTSA. Now working in the community, she gives current students some of the same opportunities she had by serving at workshops and tournament throughout the year.

Consultant
Derek Liles
Derek Liles has lived and breathed debate for nearly 20 years. Born and raised in Dallas, he debated at Dallas Jesuit and UT San Antonio. After graduating, Derek returned to Dallas to coach and help administer Dallas Urban Debate programs.
In his first 4 years working with the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance, Derek helped to double the number of Dallas ISD campuses & students participating.
In 2016, Derek left our organization to become a teacher at one of its member campuses: Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet. He also continued to work to advance the Dallas Urban Debate mission by hosting professional development opportunities for coaches, student workshop sessions, and tournaments for debate programs across Dallas ISD.
In 2019, Derek returned to the Dallas Urban Debate as the new Executive Director, steering the organization through the complexities imposed by COVID-19. Though he stepped back to explore new career opportunities in 2021, he remains on board as a consultant.
