Vida Chiri

Vida Chiri is an Assistant Director of Debate at Liberty University.

Coach Chiri is a highly successful varsity debate coach. Her debaters earned a first-round at-large bid to the National Debate Tournament in 2019 and have debated in elimination debates and earned top speaker awards at all the major national tournaments, including GSU, Weber, Wake Forest, Gonzaga, Cal Swings, Rutgers RR, Northwestern, Gonzaga, and the NDT.

Coach Chiri taught at UC Berkeley’s summer debate institute and Newark Science and University High School. Her high school debaters have won or advanced to the late elimination debates of major national and regional high school tournaments like Lexington, Lakeland, NDCA Nationals, Tournament of Champions, and NSDA Nationals. She has coached numerous students in LD and Policy debates to the Tournament of Champions.

Chiri was a debater for University High School (NJ) before being recruited to debate for Liberty. As a varsity debater at LU, Chiri qualified for and advanced to the elimination rounds at the National Debate Tournament three years in a row with a sweet sixteen (octo-final) appearance and was the 2nd Seed in 2016. She advanced to late elimination debates of the Cross-Examination Debate Association National Tournament, reaching the final debate in 2016. Her competitive successes were a significant part of eight First Place National Rankings Championships for Liberty Debate.

Coach Chiri has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Human Services Counseling from Liberty University.