This spring, Emory’s Barkley Forum won its fourth National Debate Tournament (NDT) Championship in one of the most dominant performances seen during 80 years of the nation’s most prestigious collegiate policy debate tournament.
The team of junior Daniel Gallagher and sophomore Ike Song claimed the national title for Emory, capping a year of remarkable achievements — including receiving the Copeland Award, which is presented annually to the team that demonstrates the best overall performance across the regular season.
Gallagher and Song entered the NDT as the tournament’s highest-ranked team. They won all eight of their preliminary rounds, entered elimination rounds as the tournament’s top seed and received a bye through the first elimination round.
In a testament to the depth of the Barkley Forum roster, three Emory teams placed in the tournament’s Sweet 16 competition. Senior Lucas Lobo and junior Coralynn Yang, along with seniors Aaron Kim and Jared Shirts, joined Gallagher and Song in the octafinals.
Having three teams reach NDT elimination rounds is a mark of expectional program-wide excellence, according to Mikaela Malsin, Barkley Forum director and program alum.
“In a heartbreaking twist, two Emory teams met one another in the octafinals, ending the season for Lucas and Coralynn but securing Emory’s place in the quarterfinals,” Malsin says.
Gallagher and Song carried their momentum through the elimination rounds and won the quarters and semifinals on unanimous decisions. Gallagher was also individually honored as the tournament’s top speaker, an award recognizing the debater who performs at the highest level across the preliminary rounds.
A season for the record books
In recent years, the NDT has featured 78 of the nation’s top debate teams. Since the NDT’s first tournament in 1947, only four schools have achieved first in the season-long rankings, won the tournament, and had the tournament’s top speaker: Dartmouth College (1984), Baylor University (1987), Northwestern University (1999) and now Emory in 2026.
“This is a historic performance for Barkley Forum and the university,” says Malsin, who was named NDT 2025 National Coach of the Year, the fourth Emory debate coach to earn the honor since it was established in 1969.
“Winning the Copeland Award, reaching the elimination rounds as the top seed, and claiming the championship while losing only three ballots throughout the tournament is an extraordinary honor that every generation of the Barkley Forum family can be proud of,” Malsin adds.
Gallagher is certainly one proud member of the current generation. The philosophy, politics and law major is a third-year Emory debater and no newcomer to top-flight competition. Last year, he and teammate Margaret Hecht placed second in the Copeland Award competition, perhaps a preview of this year’s immense accomplishments.
“I still can’t believe it. I’ve always been proud to be a member of the Barkley Forum family, but especially this year,” Gallagher says. “It’s all thanks to outstanding teamwork by our students, coaches and staff — and the BF alums who cheered us on all season, right through the NDT. I’m already looking forward to next season.”
Song is also experiencing a moment of disbelief.
“Winning the NDT honestly still doesn’t feel real. I've been debating for six years, and this always felt like an unattainable achievement,” says Song, a political science major and second-year Emory debater. “I couldn't have done it without my friend Daniel and the rest of the Barkley Forum coaches and students. It’s a really special community.”
Ed Lee III — former Barkley Forum senior director and NDT 2015 National Coach of the Year — offers additional perspective on the significance of the triple accolades.
“Just one of these three achievements is a major career highlight for any student or coach, and three over the course of a career is exceedingly rare,” says Lee. “But all three in one season is simply otherworldly.”
About Barkley Forum and the NDT
Emory’s Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier intercollegiate debate organizations, with a legacy of producing outstanding scholars, advocates and civic leaders.
Emory debaters won the National Debate Tournament Championship in 1996, 2000, 2007 and 2026. They have earned five Copeland Awards for top debate team, as well as seven top speaker and six runner-up speaker honors. Emory teams have placed in the top three in the Copeland Awards competition annually since 2020.
Emory debate coaches have also been recognized by the NDT, receiving National Coach of the Year honors four times since the award was introduced in 1967.
Barkley Forum promotes competitive debate, community outreach, and campus engagement. The program fields intercollegiate policy debate teams that compete at the national level, operates the Barkley Forum for High Schools and the Emory National Debate Institute, and partners with the Atlanta Urban Debate League to bring competitive debate to middle and high school students throughout the Atlanta metro area.
The National Debate Tournament began at the United States Military Academy in 1947. In 1967, the NDT entered a new era when the American Forensic Association (the national professional organization of forensics educators), assumed responsibility for the tournament. Over the years, the tournament has expanded in size, with various procedures used to select participants. It is widely regarded as the nation’s most prestigious public policy debate tournament.