Board of Directors

Brianna Sainte, Board President

As an attorney with the Shubin Law Group, 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 her class with magna cum laude honors and Order of the Coif membership.

Ben Mitchel, Board Vice President

Email: bmitchel@shubinlawgroup.com

Ben Mitchel is an attorney with the Shubin Law Group. Ben has a broad complex commercial litigation practice, regularly handling antitrust, financial services, and other complex civil litigation matters for his clients. Ben is a Double Gator, having graduated cum laude from both the University of Florida (B.A.) and the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law (J.D.) While in law school, Ben served as a Managing Editor of the Florida Law Review.

Alexandra Haller, Board Treasurer

Email: ahaller@bilzin.com

Alexandra Haller is an attorney with Bilzin Sumberg, where she represents private companies and private funds in formation and governance matters, M&A transactions, securities-related matters, and other strategic transactions. Alexandra lends a strong accounting background to her corporate work from her training as a Certified Public Accountant and from her auditing and investigatory work at major U.S. corporations and the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. She leverages this knowledge to provide clients with additional value on their corporate matters. Her broad experience covers matters in a diverse range of sectors, including software, healthcare, life sciences, e-commerce, renewable energy technology, and the aerospace industry, among others. Alexandra relocated to Miami, Florida from Cleveland, Ohio and is looking forward to giving back to the community she now calls home.

Osvaldo Garcia, Board Secretary

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.

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.

Dale Reed, Board Member

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.

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.

Devin Rivero Board Member

Email: Devin.rivero@whitecase.com

Devin Rivero is an attorney at White & Case, based in Miami. She is in the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice and advises debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, and other interested parties with respect to chapter 11 bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts, and related transactions. Devin received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as Production Editor of the Virginia Law & Business Review. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Miami. After graduating from law school, Devin was appointed to the Florida Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, where she worked to improve access to legal information and reduce barriers in the legal profession. Born and raised in South Florida, Devin remains deeply committed to her community and is passionate about expanding educational and professional opportunities for the next generation.

Tom Kavan, Board Member

Email: Tom.kavan@gmail.com

Tom began his debate journey at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he developed a deep appreciation for the critical thinking and communication skills debate fosters. While pursuing graduate studies at the University of Miami, Tom coached the UM debate team for two years, further solidifying his commitment to the activity. He has continued to support debate education by volunteering with the Ft. Lauderdale High School debate program and serving for over five years as a volunteer judge and Consulting Committee member with the Miami Dade Urban Debate League. Tom is passionate about creating opportunities for students to grow through debate and is honored to join the board of directors. He brings with him years of experience, a dedication to mentorship, and a belief in the transformative power of speech and debate for young people across South Florida.

Augusto A. Cividini
Email: acividini@bsfllp.com

Augusto is an associate at the Miami office of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. Augusto's practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and other high-stakes legal disputes, including multidistrict litigations, commercial arbitrations, class actions, and antitrust matters. Augusto has represented plaintiffs and defendants in both state and federal court, at both the trial and appellate level. Augusto began his legal career at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and returned to the firm after serving as a law clerk to the Hon. Darrin P. Gayles of the U.S. District for the Southern District of Florida. Augusto attended the Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with Magna Cum Laude and Order of Coif distinctions

Directors

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.

Our Partners

Miami-Dade_County_Public_Schools_Seal.svg.png