MYA WHITAKER
Executive director

Mya is the first Bay Area Urban Debate League Champion. She received her Bachelor's degree in Communication from San Francisco State University. As an Emerge graduate, her long-term plan is to run for Congress. Mya organized a roundtable for youth to speak directly to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Superintendent Antwan Wilson. Students came together to speak to powerful policy makers about their education. Mya makes a difference & empowers Oakland youth.

Sekayi bardell
program director

Sekayi is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Political Economy and graduating in 2023. She participated in BAUDL at Oakland Tech high school, winning the league championship and representing BAUDL at the National Urban Debate Championships. Sekayi worked as a Regional Coordinator at BAUDL for three years before becoming the BAUDL Program Director in 2023. Sekayi is the second BAUDL Program Director who also has experience participating in the program. ​

AMY ​Gorell
high school program manager & student leadership coach

Amy brings over 12 years of competitive debate experience—as a nationally-ranked competitor, judge, and coach. As a BAUDL policy debate coach, she's guided students to NAUDL nationals, state championships, and national tournament elimination rounds. Amy's passion lies in empowering BAUDL students with critical thinking, public speaking, and argumentation skills, and she aims to ignite their enthusiasm for speech and debate.

VAL AXTLE
middle school program lead

A Bay Area Urban Debate League alumni, Val has dedicated more than seven years to the organization. Now a college student studying International Relations and Comparative Politics, she plans to earn her law degree and advocate for human rights at the United Nations. Val's commitment to BAUDL and Oakland runs deep. She aims to inspire local youth, proving they belong in any space they choose, and considers her work with BAUDL a lifelong aspiration fulfilled.

Ne'JAHRA Soriano
regional coordinator

Ne’Jahra is an Emery High School alum who competed in BAUDL in 2019. Ne’Jahra is the first BAUDL debater to go undefeated at six consecutive tournaments, and our Season Opener debate tournament was named after her. We are excited to welcome another Bay Area youth onto the BAUDL Staff. It speaks volumes when youth who participated in programming apply for positions to continue making an impact in their hometowns. Tell Ne’Jahra congratulations! Train Bay Area youth, Hire Bay Area youth.

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DARIN SNYDER (CHAIR)

​Darin is a partner in O'Melveny's San Francisco Office and Chair of the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice within the Litigation Department. The trial victory for client NDS Group, in which he served as lead counsel, was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 10 defense verdicts of 2008.  The Daily Journal named Darin amongst the top 75 Intellectual Property litigators in California in both 2010 and 2011.  The Legal 500 has acknowledged Darin for his work in patent, copyright and trade secrets litigation, repeatedly recognizing Darin, for his excellence in trade secret litigation, quoting clients who call him "one of the West Coast's biggest names in the area."  Darin has also been recognized repeatedly by Law & Politics Media Inc. as a Northern California "Super Lawyer."

LEAH CASTELLA (VICE CHAIR)

Ms. Castella specializes in public law litigation at both the trial court and appellate court levels, and has extensive experience litigating cases on behalf of public and private entities.  Her areas of specialization include Proposition 218, 1021.5 attorney’s fees disputes, inverse condemnation and takings, environmental law, and eminent domain. When litigation looms, Ms. Castella counsels her clients to consider creative, cost effective solutions to potential disputes.  In the event that litigation ensues, Ms. Castella is an aggressive advocate with an exemplary track record of success at the demurrer, summary judgment, and appeal stages.

JILL FOX (FINANCE & ACCOUNTING COMMITTEE)

Jill’s practice focuses on commercial real estate and business litigation. Her experience includes handling commercial and mixed use development, leasing, and finance disputes, receivership issues, title disputes, anti-SLAPP proceedings, and attorney fee claims involving developers, lenders, real estate syndicators, brokers, closely held businesses, non-profit corporations and public entities. She has represented clients in all phases of litigation, at the trial and appellate levels.

BEN CROSSON (TREASURER)

Benjamin Crosson is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he is a member of the commercial and securities litigation practice. Ben specializes in several areas, including defense of companies and their officers and directors in shareholder class actions and derivative suits, complex civil litigation, and internal investigations and representations before the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice in connection with potential financial reporting and accounting fraud allegations, disclosure issues, and potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

 KINA MANDELBROT (FINANCE & ACCOUNTING COMMITTEE)

Kina is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the BAUDC and has assisted the organization with legal, governance and finance matters.  She graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and has a law degree from The University of Chicago.  She practiced law at the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison before joining VISX, Inc. (maker of the laser for correcting vision) as Assistant General Counsel and later becoming the company’s General Counsel.

BRENT STOLLE (FINANCE & ACCOUNTING COMMITTEE)

MAIAH PARKS (SECRETARY)

JEFF D. POLSKY

Jeff focuses his practice on business and employment litigation and counseling. He represents clients in disputes relating to; claims of discrimination and harassment, trade secret violations, wage and hour compliance, wrongful discharge, and breach of contract. Recognizing the risk and expense inherent in litigation, Jeff has extensive experience in alternative methods of resolving disputes, including mediation.

LEXY GREEN

​Lexy is the Director of Debate at The College Preparatory School.




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CRAIG WICKERSHAM

Craig Wickersham is the General Counsel and Head of HR at Obsidian Security, where he oversees all legal and HR matters for the cybersecurity software company. Craig has also held key in-house legal positions at Frameplay, DataRobot, AppDynamics, and Yahoo, and previously was an associate at law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Craig participated in policy debate in high school and college, where he won the 2005 Cross Examination Debate Association national championship at Cal.

JYLEESA HAMPTON

KAHLIL YEARWOOD

MICHAEL BURSHTEYN