Associate Manager for Middle School & Public Forum Operations
Flynn Makuch is the Associate Manager for Middle School and Public Forum Operations. Flynn leads the program team to achieve excellence in the areas of middle school policy debate and public forum debate. Flynn is a fervent believer in the transformative power of debate for youth, and they are especially enthusiastic about providing debate to younger students and exploring different debate formats to make debate more accessible.
Flynn was a policy debate champion in high school, winning the Illinois State (IHSA) tournament in addition to national tournaments across the country. As a former policy debater from the Chicago area, Flynn received a scholarship to debate in college for the University of Texas at Austin where they received a B.A. in History focusing on African and African Diaspora Studies and Women and Gender Studies. As a college debater, Flynn continued to achieve national competitive success while beginning to volunteer with urban high school debate.
Over the last 15 years, they have been a debate coach or assistant debate coach at many high schools and college debate programs, starting as a volunteer judge at Chicago Debates in 2016. Flynn is incredibly passionate about the special, unique power of debate, and they are excited to continue their work with Chicago Debates to help achieve the vision and mission of the organization.