The date was Nov. 21, 2009. The place was Wake Forest University. The occasion was the renaming of the National Coach of the Year Award, created in 1967, to honor the late, beloved debate coach Ross K. Smith.
The speaker was Melissa Maxcy Wade, executive director of forensics at Emory, the university’s former debate director and the 1991 recipient of the National Debate Tournament (NDT) National Coach of the Year Award. She was also one of the most respected members of the intercollegiate debate community.
Mikaela Malsin, at the time an Emory senior and Barkley Forum debater, listened intently as Wade addressed hundreds of college debaters and their coaches at the annual gathering of the nation’s premier intercollegiate debate association. Then the unexpected happened: Wade mentioned Malsin’s name.
As Wade concluded her tribute to Smith, she named three young debate coaches from various schools and one debate student: Malsin. Wade expressed her expectation that one day those four might each present the award being dedicated to Smith that evening and “keep the spirit and heart of its honoree alive, as I hope I have done tonight….”
The 22-year-old Malsin was stunned — but absolutely delighted. Wade’s comment was both an endorsement of the student’s skills as a debater and a prediction that an exciting career awaited her in the world of intercollegiate debate.
“I remember feeling a special thrill unlike any other,” Malsin says. “To hear a person of Melissa’s stature suggest to that audience that one day my contributions to our field might be mentioned in the same sentence with hers, Ross Smith’s, and other debate coaches of similar prominence — it was probably the single most inspiring moment of my life.”
Today, Wade’s prophesy certainly appears headed toward fulfillment. On April 3, the NDT presented this year’s Ross K. Smith National Coach of the Year Award to Malsin, director of debate for Emory’s Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue.
The award recognizes lifetime achievement in coaching intercollegiate debate, citing four criteria that award recipients must meet: a consistent record fielding nationally competitive teams; a consistent record as a top debate judge; contributions to the evolution of the debate field; and taking debate outside itself.
Coming home
In 2021, Malsin was named Emory’s director of debate, a role that entails serving as lead debate coach, among other responsibilities. Each year since, Barkley Forum has continued to underpin its position as one of the nation’s top intercollegiate debate programs.
The program has received three bids each season to attend the National Debate Tournament since Malsin’s arrival, seven of which were first round at-large (top 16) bids. Each year, an Emory partnership has ranked third or better in the nation at the end of the regular season, including receiving the 2024 Copeland Award for the overall top two-person debate team in the country.
Emory debaters have earned a berth in the octofinals (the round of 16, where teams compete to advance to the quarterfinals) or better at the NDT each year, winning Top Speaker in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and second speaker in 2025. Beyond the NDT, Barkley Forum has reached the elimination rounds in every major national tournament and brought home top honors from 10.
Prior to her current position, Malsin served as director of debate at Georgetown University and debate coach at Wake Forest University, University of Georgia and Emory. She holds a PhD in communication from the University of Georgia and a master’s from Wake Forest.
Malsin’s love of debate began when she joined her New Hampshire high school’s debate program, which her older brother helped establish when he was a student. Four years later, it was time for Malsin to choose a college.
“When I visited Emory as a high school senior, I fell in love with the university, and the rest, as they say, is history,” Malsin says. Ed Lee III, a 2015 Coach of the Year Award recipient and now senior director of inclusivity for Emory College of Arts and Sciences, was her primary debate coach for all four years at Emory.
“Ed has a brilliant debate mind and understanding of strategy but, more importantly, he is an incredibly warm and welcoming person who made me feel at home on the team right away,” Malsin says. “Ed and other Barkley Forum coaches, including James Herndon, believed in me. I would not be who I am today without the guidance of my Barkley Forum coaches.”
The nurturing of the young debater by her dedicated coaches may have played a key role in bringing her, as a seasoned debate coach, back home to Emory.
“I realized that everything I’ve done since college was geared toward becoming the best director of debate that I could possibly be,” says Malsin, who briefly considered a more scholarly career teaching in higher education. “When I think about Emory and my students and colleagues, I know I’ve found everything I could have had as a professor, and so much more, as a debate coach with Barkley Forum.”
Clearly, Wade’s words are proving prophetic, which comes as no surprise to her or others in the debate community who have worked with Malsin over the years.
“Mikaela was a passionate, steady presence and team player in Emory debate for four years, and it was apparent to us all that her academic skill set was exceptional,” Wade says. “I could not be more thrilled today that Mikaela is so capably bringing Barkley Forum into the next phase of debate’s nearly two-century history at Emory.”