NHSEB Announces New Leadership and Advisory Appointments for 2023-2024
As we look forward to our 2023-2024 Season, the National High School Ethics Bowl is excited to announce a variety of new leadership and advisory appointments across NHSEB’s Administration Team, Executive Committee, and Advisory Board.
Will Kanwischer
Susanna King
For 2023-2024, Will Kanwischer and Susanna King will join the NHSEB Administration Team as Graduate Assistant and Undergraduate Assistant, respectively. Kanwischer, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill, will assume leadership of NHSEBBridge Access Initiatives, NHSEB’s Southeastern Divisional Playoffs Circuit, and more. King, a third year undergraduate at UNC, will provide crucial administrative support and assume leadership of NHSEB’s Student Advisory Council, for which applications to fill vacant seats will open in July. We thank our outgoing Administration Team, Delaney Thull (GA) and Austin Foushee (UGA), for their service, and look forward to welcoming Will and Susanna this Fall.
Vanessa Moore
This Fall, the NHSEB Executive Committee will also bid farewell to two long-time members: Sally Moore and Juliana Hemela—both of whom will be moving on from the Parr Center for Ethics to other roles. We thank them for their years of dedicated service to NHSEB, wish them well, and look forward to welcoming their successors. Effective July 1, the Executive Committee is excited to welcome Vanessa Moore, the Parr Center’s newly appointed Director of Undergraduate Programming. Vanessa brings years of experience in education and program design, and will be a valuable asset to the Center and to NHSEB. Effective in August, NHSEB will make an additional appointment to the Executive Committee for the Parr Center’s new Administrator, who will serve as an Event Coordinator for the NHSEB program
Finally, NHSEB HQ is thrilled to announce seven new appointments to the NHSEB Advisory Board:
Mark Doorley, Ph.D., serves as the Director of the Ethics Program in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Villanova University. Since 2000 he has been continuously involved at all levels of the Ethics Bowl activity. Since 2011 he has hosted the Delaware River Valley High School Ethics Bowl. His teaching and research interests are in environmental and technology ethics. He lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with his lovely wife, Cathy.
Daniel Gellasch is Outreach and Programming Coordinator at the Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement at the University of Baltimore. Daniel coaches the UBalt Ethics Bowl team, directs the Maryland High School Ethics Bowl, oversees the student fellows program, edits and publishes the PLE Student Journal, and administers the Hoffberger Center’s social media and online spaces. His areas of interest include philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and critical theory. His current study and research centers around the idea of “cognitive duties.”
Merry Guerrera is a College Credit Plus Composition Instructor and an Innovative Learning CampusCoach at the Hilliard City School District in Hillard, Ohio. She coaches multiple Ethics Bowl teams in her district, and is the inaugural winner (with Pam Antos, also of the Hilliard School District) of NHSEB’s Coach of the Year Award, established in early 2023.
Venus Kent, M.B.A. is Program Coordinator at the Cincinnati Ethics Center, founded in 2021. Venus serves as lead for the Center’s Ethics Bowl programming, and she is passionate about bringing ethics and civics programming to new and non-traditional audiences. In her spare time, she restores historic homes, recently including her own 1924 Cape Cod styled home, and an 1890 Italianate Victorian. She also is an avid baker, and her zucchini and carrot bread products can be found at local coffee shops all around Cincinnati.
Courtney Kobos is an English instructor at the Alamance-Burlington Early College. Since she started at the school in 2020, she has also served as her school's Ethics Bowl coach and enjoys integrating ethics in club meetings and in her English curriculum. Before returning to Alamance County, Courtney was awarded a Fulbright grant and spent one year teaching English in the Czech Republic while a student at Elon University. Fostering her love of travel and working with students, Courtney spends her summers working in Prague as a CIEE program leader.
Heather Lynch, Ph.D. teaches Philosophy and Literature in the International Baccalaureate program at Campbell High School in Georgia. Her Ethics Bowl team at Campbell exists as an after-school club welcoming students who are moved to consider some of the most consequential issues of our times. She earned her doctoral degree in Teaching and Learning at Georgia State University in 2013; her research centered on video games, identity, and learning, as well as considering new teachers’ dispositions upon entering the classroom. These days, she is particularly passionate about the work she has the privilege of exploring with young people relevant to philosophies of personhood, ethics, and religion. When not working with students, she enjoys adventuring with her husband and two daughters/gurus.
Julie Piering, Ph.D. is Richard Wood Professor for the Teaching of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Northern Arizona. She is also Assistant Director of the Institute for Public and Professional Ethics in Leadership at UNA. Julie founded the Arizona High School Ethics Bowl in 2022. In addition to her faculty role at UNA, she heads up multiple philosophy outreach initiatives, and is particularly interested in working with indigenous populations in Arizona and beyond.
We are grateful to all of our new appointees as well as those who will be departing our various committees for their willingness to serve and their dedication to the National High School Ethics Bowl. You can learn more about our entire team, and all the people who make NHSEB possible, here.