Coaches
Dr. Claire Gordon
Director of Speech and Debate
School of Communication and Media
Office: UHB 3021
Phone: 217.206.7442
Dr. Gordon has been the Director of Speech and Debate at UIS since August 2023. She has been teaching college-level communication and public speaking courses since 1978.
Dr. Gordon earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in speech communication from Miami University (Ohio) and her Ph.D. in communication from The Ohio State University. She taught for six years at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and for 29 years at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois. Her specialty is teaching highly apprehensive students how to overcome their fear of public speaking.
Dr. Gordon has a lot of enthusiasm for her duties as Coach of the Speech and Debate Team at UIS. She enjoys working individually with students as they prepare for upcoming tournaments. Currently, the Speech and Debate Team is participating in online asynchronous tournaments. During Fall Semester 2023 Dr. Gordon was happy to create the first in-person Speech and Debate Team activities since the Covid pandemic began in March 2020. Team meetings were scheduled where team members watched and supported each others’ speeches and got to know each other better. These meetings created a great sense of camaraderie amongst team members and served to offset the sense of disconnect that can result from recording competition speeches and submitting videos to online tournaments.
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