New Hire: Bill Altorfer joins the CDC as Development and Advocacy Fellow

Bill Altorfer, the Chicago Debate Commission's Development and Advocacy Fellow, gives students feedback after a round at the 2009 Mayer Brown Urban Debate Invitational

The Chicago Debate Commission has been looking for opportunities to expand its visibility and further grow its list of supporters and partners.  To achieve those goals, we have created a position of Development and Advocacy Fellow.  We are pleased to introduce Bill Altorfer as our new Development and Advocacy Fellow.

Bill is a recent graduate from the University of Chicago where he majored in history and received several academic honors.  His hiring is an extension of the University of Chicago’s Public Interest Program, which places graduates as full-time employees with established non-profit organizations in Chicago.

As Development and Advocacy Fellow, Bill will work with the Executive Director and the Board of Directors to strengthen the CDC’s development capacity, while also designing and implementing new advocacy efforts.

Bill knows urban debate.  He was named CDL “Adjudicator of the Year” two seasons ago and will continue to coach at Hyde Park Academy, where over the past three years he has built a consistently successful debate program.

Bill commented, “It’s exciting. There are some really tremendous programming initiatives that are coming up this season, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the students respond.  From a development standpoint, our growth potential is limited only by our creativity, and I am committed to helping the CDC significantly expand its capacity to support the initiatives that make a difference in more and more students’ lives.”

CDC Executive Director, Les Lynn said, “Bill Altorfer brings to the CDC his experience with and passion for urban debate, his outstanding training from the University of Chicago and a fresh outlook for promoting and growing our organization, which will enable us to extend our mission of ‘Empowering the Voice of Urban Youth’ to even more Chicago-area students. I’m looking forward to working with him.”