2016 Minnesota State High School League State Debate Tournament
Public Forum Community Judges
Aronson, Roger
Counsel & lobbyist for the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals & practices law in Minneapolis.
He is a graduate of St. John’s University in 1976 and the University of Minnesota School of Law in 1979. He is co-chair of
the Minnesota State Bar Association’s School Law Conference and is on the executive committee of the education
lobbyist’s group, BELL. In addition, Roger is Special Projects Counsel for the Minnesota State High School League, and
represents the Minneapolis Principals’ Forum and St. Paul Principals’ Association, and the Minnesota Elementary School
Principals Association.
He is a member of the Minnesota Council on School Attorneys as well as the National Council on School Attorneys.
He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on school law topics. In 2001, he was selected by Law and Politics Magazine as
one of Minnesota’s top lobbyists and in 2003-04 he was selected as a Minnesota Super Lawyer. He was a member of the
Moorhead High School debate team.
Kalla, Chris
Partner, Hanbery & Turner, P.A.
He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota in 1992 with B.S. in Civil Engineering and the William Mitchell School of
Law in 2003 cum laude with a J.D. degree. He worked six years with MNDOT as a surveyor and inspector and six years
with Kraus-Anderson Construction as a construction project manager. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Michael
J. Roith in Anoka County and has worked eleven years in private practice as a real estate litigator. He coached high
school policy debate for eight years at South Saint Paul and Osseo. He was a member of the South St. Paul High School
debate team.
Erickson, Sondra
Minnesota State Representative (Rural Princeton, House District 15A) since 1998.
She is a graduate of Concordia College with a B.A. in English in 1964. She also attended graduate school at the
University of St. Thomas.
A retired English teacher of thirty-five years at Princeton High School, she also served on the
Minnesota Board of Teaching from 1992–1997, and on the Minnesota Statehood Sesquicentennial Commission from
2006-2008. She is chair of the Minnesota House Education Innovation Policy Committee and is also a sixteen-yearmember of K-12 Education Finance Committee. She also serves as chair of the House Ethics Committee and the
Legislative Audit Commission. Her terms also include serving on the committees of health and human services finance,
state government finance, regulated industries, taxes, property taxes, pensions and housing.
Lance, Jean
Senior Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer for Boston Scientific & member of its Executive Committee.
She oversees the Company’s Global Compliance function, which is committed to maintaining a best-in-class compliance
and ethics program across all Boston Scientific business groups and locations, including the Company’s interactions with
health care professionals. Prior to assuming her current role, she served as Vice President and General Counsel for the
Company’s Cardiovascular Group. Before joining Boston Scientific in 1996, she was General Counsel and Vice President
of Human Resources for Red Line Healthcare Corporation. Previously, she practiced with the national law firm of
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago, Illinois, where she specialized in corporate law with an emphasis in health
law. She is a 1983 graduate of Minnesota State University-Mankato with a B.S. degree with honors in Accounting. She
received her law degree, with honors, in 1986 from the University of Minnesota Law School where she was a member of
the Law Review. She is also a certified public accountant. She was a member of the Mankato West High School debate
team and was inducted into the Mankato West Hall of Fame in 2015.
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McGee, Jon
Vice President for Planning and Public Affairs, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, MN.
He has worked in higher education research and policy for 24 years. Serving 4 years as a budget analyst with
Minnesota’s Department of Finance and 6 years as Vice President for Research and Policy Development with the
Minnesota Private College Council, he joined the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in 1999. He
serves on the cabinet of both colleges and is responsible for research and analysis in support of enrollment and budget
decision-making, state and federal government relations, and strategic planning.
He is a frequently invited speaker nationally on demographic trends, the economics of higher education, and the
intersection of mission, market, and institutional values. His new book, Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher
Education (published by the Johns Hopkins University Press), examines key forces of disruption in higher education and
offers a framework to colleges and universities for addressing those issues. He serves as a trustee of the College Board
and as a member of the College Board’s College Scholarship Service Assembly Council, where he is national chair. He
also serves on the faculty of the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions. He is a 1984 graduate of St. John’s
University with a Bachelor’s degree in government and political science and earned his Master’s degree in Public Affairs
from the University of Minnesota in 1988. He was a member of the Mankato West High School debate team.
Sarff, Gail
Professor of Communications, Minneapolis Community and Technical College
She currently teaches in the field of communications involving courses in public speaking, interpersonal communication,
intercultural communication and argumentation at MCTC. She is a life-long speech and debate coach and judge, retired
from active coaching after 41 years of coaching at Wayzata High School. She taught English and Speech and coached
Speech and Policy Debate at Regis, a private school in Iowa for three years. She then started the Wayzata High School
Debate program in 1979, and has coached hundreds of students to state and national competitions. She coached the
1998 and 2007 MSHSL state policy debate champions.
She also coached MSHSL speech activities from 1984 to 2012. During her coaching tenure, she had students compete at
the NFL national tournament in oratory, extemporaneous speaking, dramatic interpretation, public forum debate and
policy debate. Her coaching tenure and accomplishments contributed to her earning Five Diamond Coach honors from
the National Speech and Debate Association in 2013. She has received other honors, including the 1995 Minnesota
Debate Teachers Association (MDTA) Coach of the Year, the 2003 MDTA Distinguished Service Award, the 2006 CTAM
Outstanding Individual in Communication Theater Award and a 2012 WEM Academic Challenge Coach Award. She was
inducted into the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of her contributions to high
school debate and speech. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in Communication and Theater Arts in
1970. She graduated in 1991 from the University of Minnesota with a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis on
English/Language Arts.
Simon, Steve
Secretary of State, Minnesota
He was sworn into office as Minnesota’s 22nd Secretary of State on January 5, 2015. As chief elections administrator, he
is responsible for protecting and strengthening the right to vote in Minnesota. Simon also oversees a wide range of
services for Minnesota businesses and administers the “Safe at Home” address confidentiality program for people who
have personal safety concerns resulting from domestic violence. Before being elected Secretary of State, Simon served
in the Minnesota House of Representatives for ten years representing St. Louis Park and Hopkins. He graduated with a
B.A in Political Science from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1992, and earned a J.D. from the University of
Minnesota Law School in 1996. He was a member of the Hopkins High School debate team.
Wartman, Michael
Instructor of Communications, Normandale Community College, Bloomington, MN.
He has taught at Normandale since 1980. He also taught at Purdue University and St. Olaf College. He primarily teaches
Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Communication, Intercultural Communication and Nonverbal
Communication. He has also taught Argumentation and Debate and Television Production. He has coached collegiate
individual events since 1980 and also coached and judged Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate and Parliamentary
Debate at both high school and college levels. He is a 1978 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire with a
B.A. in Speech and Theatre. He graduated from Purdue University in 1980 with an M.A. in Communication. He is a
member of the Communication and Theatre Association of Minnesota and has served on its Board of Governors.
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