McVey named Kansas speech communication Collegiate Educator of the Year

Sept. 1, 2022

Alex McVey, assistant professor of communication studies and director of Kansas State University debate, was named Collegiate Educator of the Year by the Kansas Speech Communication Association (KSCA). The award was presented during KSCA’s annual conference, held this year at Wichita State University.

The award was presented to McVey for his work in establishing new educational opportunities for debate students and coaches in Kansas. This included assisting KSCA with last year’s annual conference at K-State which provided professional development opportunities to speech and debate coaches in Kansas.

This summer, McVey led the debate team in hosting K-State’s first college debate camp in over a decade, which brought Kansas high school students to the university to hone their skills and explore collegiate debate. McVey also established a partnership with Happy Learning to host nearly 60 middle and high school students for a week-long debate camp, which will now be held annually on the K-State Olathe campus. K-State Debate also conducted Wildcat Warmup clinics last fall, which helped prepare high school debaters for their first few tournaments of the season.

“Overall, we’ve served close to 150 high school students over the course of the last two years with K-State Debate educational programming of some kind,” said McVey. “This type of programming gives high school debaters a chance to experience college-level competition and introduces them to the excellent teaching and research that happens at K-State.”

Along with serving as the director of debate, McVey is a critical-cultural communication scholar whose research and pedagogy uses a variety of methods from rhetoric and media studies to examine how communication both contributes to and challenges social inequality.

“I was incredibly honored to receive this award from the KSCA,” McVey said. “I was a Kansas high school debater myself, so I know first-hand the kind of impact speech and debate coaches in Kansas have, and I’m so grateful to be recognized amongst this group. I also want to thank the Assistant Director of K-State Debate, William James Taylor, as well as all our graduate coaching assistants and debaters who have been integral in bringing these opportunities to the Kansas high school debate community.”

For more information about K-State Debate, visit k-state.edu/debate.