Board of Directors
Osvaldo Garcia, Board Co Chair
Email: ogarcia@urbandebate.org
Osvaldo Garcia is an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, working as a wealth advisor for the bank’s clients in Latin America. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Osvaldo practiced as a Private Client attorney at Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price and Axelrod LLP, as well as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Osvaldo has been committed throughout his career to pro bono work and was previously recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for his work in founding and running a clinic dedicated to providing legal services to the undocumented immigrant community. Osvaldo received his J.D. from Cornell Law School, with a concentration on Litigation and Advocacy, a specialization in International Legal Affairs and with Dean’s List distinctions. He received an LLM in Tax Law from New York University. He received his B.A. from Florida International University, magna cum laude, where he concentrated on International Relations and Criminal Justice.
Richard Perez, Board Co-Chair
Email: Richard.Perez@hklaw.com
Richard Perez is a transactional lawyer who practices in the areas of corporate and governmental law. In addition to an active corporate and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice, Mr. Perez has extensive experience in governmental transactions, including procurement matters and public-private joint ventures. Mr. Perez represents sponsors, concessionaires and other project participants in relation to capital-intensive projects in the U.S., including public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure projects and privatization transactions. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Perez served as General Counsel to the Florida Department of State, where he managed all legal matters pertaining to the 2004 presidential election. In addition, he represented the Florida House of Representatives on issues regarding redistricting and advised the federal court on the re-drafting of state legislative districts in the State of Georgia.
Dale Reed, Board Treasurer
Email: dale@merrimacventures.com
Dale has overseen high-profile, luxury hotel and condominium projects across the U.S. He has worked on thirty-eight projects spanning most of the major metropolitan markets. Dale joined Merrimac Ventures as Senior Vice President in 2014, working on both their real estate development projects as well as a five hundred home single-family rental portfolio in Atlanta, GA and was subsequently promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Dale has an extensive background in construction, sales, marketing, information technology, acquisitions, operations and litigation management. He is also an accomplished executive coach and trainer, having facilitated hundreds of seminars on sales, hospitality service and management for Weichert Realty, Coldwell Banker, Omni Hotels, Brighthouse Communications and other major corporations. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Dale serves as the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Miami-Dade Urban Debate League.
Dr. Malou C. Harrison, Board Member
Email: mharriso@mdc.edu
Dr. Harrison is a respected leader with more than 35 years of transformative leadership experiences championing the cause of underserved students in public higher education. She has served in various capacities at the College, including president of multiple campuses and Dean of Students. Throughout her tenure, she has led the establishment of many high impact partnership initiatives that have furthered equity, academic excellence and student success, in early college and workforce education, and community-based programs. Harrison has been at the helm of resource development that has garnered substantial funding from a combination of private sources as well as public funders such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education to support Trio, Title V and Title III programs as well as numerous educational and undergraduate science research programs aimed at advancing minority student attainment in STEM disciplines. She is also a prolific writer on educational issues. She is the author of a chapter, "Toward Equity: The Immigrant Experience at MDC" in Working Toward an Equitable and Prosperous Future for All: How Community Colleges and Immigrants Are Changing America. And a chapter titled, “Community Colleges: Fertile Ground for Black Male Student Success" in Engaging African American Males in Community College” (Contemporary perspectives on Access, Equity and Achievement).
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David L. Steinberg, Board Member
Email: dave@miami.edu
David Steinberg is Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Communication Studies and Director of Debate at The University of Miami. He has directed UM’s Debate Program since 1990 and has hosted and served the Miami Dade Urban Debate League throughout its existence. Steinberg is co-author of the leading collegiate textbook on Debate and Argumentation and has served as the President of the Cross Examination Debate Association, the primary organization representing intercollegiate policy debate. His teams are internationally respected and competitively successful.
Brianna Sainte, Board Member
Email: briannasainte@yahoo.com
As an associate in Bilzin Sumberg’s Litigation Department, Brianna focuses her practice on complex civil litigation matters. In particular she provides targeted insights through in-depth research into clients' businesses that help guide the team's approach to each matter. She has been involved in a wide variety of cases from breach of contract, landlord-tenant disputes, antitrust and financial litigation cases. Brianna has federal trial experience at both the district and appellate court level. Prior to practicing, she attended the University of Miami School of Law where she served as the Eleventh Circuit Editor of the University of Miami Law Review. Additionally, Brianna served as both a Student Clinician in the Innocence Clinic and a Dean’s Fellow for Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, and Legal Communications and Writing I. She graduated in the top 5% of my class with magna cum laude honors and Order of the Coif membership.
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Clifford A. Schulman, Board Member
Email: Dadlightaventura@gmail.com
Cliff Schulman is a renowned Environmental Lawyer with over 50 years of experience in the field. He has consulted on and participated in numerous major development projects across South Florida, from Coral Gables to West Palm Beach. His work includes representing high-rise developers in Sunny Isles Beach for condominium approvals, helping with environmental clean-ups of clients located in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties
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Niyala A. Harrison, Board Member
Email: harrisonn@gtlaw.com
Niyala Harrison is an attorney in the Miami office of Greenberg Traurig. She represents cities, counties, school districts and governmental entities in financing essential public infrastructure projects such as schools, libraries, hospitals, roadways, air and sea ports. Niyala is a proud alumnus of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, having graduated from MAST Academy. She earned a B.A. and M.S. from Florida State University and a J.D. from University of Miami School of Law. Niyala is committed to a number of community and civic causes in South Florida. She has served as a volunteer and author host for Miami Book Fair for more than 20 years and is a fierce proponent of education and literacy. She regularly mentors high school and law school students. An ardent believer that “Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth,” Niyala maintains an active pro bono practice. Niyala is a graduate of Leadership Miami Class 41.
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Coral del Mar Lopez, Board Member
Email: coralpur@gmail.com
Coral del Mar López is an attorney at Stearns Weaver Miller in the Miami Office and she focuses her practice on commercial business litigation, representing clients in class actions, arbitrations, and single-plaintiff actions in multiple jurisdictions. She has litigated a wide variety of disputes in state and federal courts, including matters involving general business concerns, financial services, commercial and residential foreclosures, and leasing disputes, unfair competition and false advertising, corporate control and partnership disputes, state attorney general actions and government investigations, and construction defects.
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Ian M. Ross, Board Member
Email: iross@sidley.com
Ian Ross represents clients in business disputes, commercial and securities litigation, government investigations, and class actions. He is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA in Securities Litigation (2022) and is also ranked in Commercial Litigation (2022), where he was described by clients as “a great communicator” who provides “excellent assessments of our positions.”
Directors
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Kalyn Lee, Program Director
Email: klee@urbandebate.org
Kalyn Lee attended The University of Alabama for both her B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in Communications studies. During her undergraduate career, Kalyn competed for the Alabama Forensic Council, The University of Alabama's nationally ranked Speech and Debate team, where she also served as co-captain. In addition to her time on the team, she, alongside three other students founded The University of Alabama's Intercultural Diversity Center, the first ever center at The University of Alabama. Upon graduation, Kalyn joined Teach for America in 2017, teaching English, Dual Enrollment Public Speaking, and coaching debate at Miami Carol City Senior High School.
Her dedication to her school and students earned her the award - 2020 Francisco R. Walker Rookie Teacher of the Year for Miami-Dade County, the third largest United States school district. Kalyn also teaches on the collegiate level within the Department of Communications at both Miami Dade College and Broward College.
Volunteers
Lauren Nieto, League Volunteer
Lauren Nieto is a rising Senior attending Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart. A varsity debater and Co-Captain of Carrollton’s Policy Debate team, she has led her team to success by producing high-quality evidence and files, coordinating practice debates, and coaching the school’s Novice and Junior Varsity debaters. Having started her debate career in sophomore year, Lauren has quickly progressed and achieved competitive success, reaching the deep elimination rounds and earning speaker awards in various tournaments on the National Circuit. Outside of debate, Lauren enjoys participating in activities centered around both engineering and addressing climate change, including Carrollton’s Solar Car team, for which she works towards building and racing a life-sized solar-powered vehicle, and competing in the county’s local Dream in Green competition, designing environmentally-friendly adaptations of certain Miami properties. Lauren is also an academically-motivated student, interested in pursuing a career in the field of applied mathematics.
Meet Our Sponsors
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