Meet the Coaching Staff

Amanda Ozaki-Laughon
Director of Forensics

Amanda Ozaki-Laughon graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in History and Political Thought from Concordia University Irvine in 2015. She debated on Concordia's debate team for four years, during which time they won the 2013 and 2015 NPDA Sweepstakes National Championship awards. She and her partner Richard Ewell were undefeated with an 8-0 record at the NPDA national tournament, where she also received the All-American Award for debate and scholastic achievement, as well as 5th place speaker at both the NPTE and NPDA national tournaments.

For the past four years, she has coached CUI debaters to Quarterfinal finishes (or better) each year, as well as placing 2nd (2016), 2nd (2017), 7th (2018) and 2nd (2019) at nationals. As Director of Forensics, she looks forward to harnessing her genuine love for people to lead Concordia Forensics forward.

Claire Crossman
Director of Individual Events

Claire Crossman graduated with a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College, majoring in Rhetoric and Media, and received her M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles, where she majored in Communication Studies. During her undergrad, she competed in both speech and debate for Lewis & Clark, advancing to national elimination rounds in both platform and interpretation events. She is also a member of the 2017 AFA All-American team.

As the lead forensics graduate assistant at CSULA, Claire coached all three genres of individual events, and became CUI’s Assistant Director of Individual Events after graduating. Now, as the Director of Individual Events, she is ecstatic to take on a larger role for Concordia’s team, and to be able to help grow their tradition of excellence in forensics.

Benjamin Lange
Director of Debate

Benjamin Lange graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Behavioral Sciences from Concordia University Irvine in 2019. He served as Team Captain for two years, leading his teammates to success in practices and at tournaments. He qualified for the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship tournament 4 years in a row, and finished 4th place at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence. He was also awarded the Bovero Award for community service, and the All-American Award for demonstrated success in academics and debate.