1. Theresa Ellington:
I am Theresa Ellington from Scottsdale, AZ. And as I am often asked… yes, it’s a dry heat! We came to the Southwest in 2016, and that is when we joined the amazing endeavor of Stoa speech and debate. We jumped in, started traveling to several tournaments, and I loved seeing growth in every student. In 2018 I started directing local tournaments for Mars Hill Speech and Debate. Directing and planning 7 local tournaments has given me a front row seat to watching students speak boldly, experiencing the encouragement of the Stoa Family, and seeing God move seemingly impossible obstacles out of the way so His tournaments can proceed. I was also pleased to co-direct the Stoa Virtual Purple Tournament. Tournaments are truly a labor of love and enormous blessings.
Before we joined Stoa we lived in the Midwest where we were active 4-H members and participated in homeschool sports, coops, and drama. We lived on a hobby farm in Indiana where I gardened and canned extensively and raised sheep. I have been homeschooling our 4 children since birth, and this year marks my 21st official year of homeschooling. We will graduate our youngest this spring. The critical thinking, debate research, and communication skills gained from our time in Stoa have greatly added to the education of our children.
When I am not busy with speech and debate, I enjoy being outside in the beautiful Southwest. I love spending time with my husband of 30 years. I also take group fitness classes at the gym every week; my favorite class is Barre. And like many homeschoolers, I have more books than I can reasonably read in the next 10 years. I am working my way through them while continuing to buy new books.
I love Stoa’s mission to train homeschool students to speak boldly and change the world for Christ. I believe it is essential to our future, and I want to be part of encouraging and protecting that mission. I hope the Stoa membership will give me the opportunity to serve on the Stoa Board.
2. Chris Lisanti:
Howdy from Chris Lisanti! I am the head coach for Ascend Texas Speech & Debate Club in New Braunfels, Texas, and am excited to be one of your candidates for the STOA Board of Directors. We have been a STOA family since 2010. Our three adult sons (Samuel, Nathanael, and Michael) competed over multiple years in multiple events at multiple NITOCs. We’ve been around! My daughter Lisa is currently involved. I coach Lincoln-Douglas and Parliamentary Debate, Extemporaneous speaking, Mars Hill, and Apologetics, and am on the STOA Tools and Tabulation Committee. I served in the United States Air Force for 28 years including a tour in Iraq and retired as a colonel in 2007, and now am a part-time diagnostic radiologist at Brooke Army Medical Center. I am a co-author of the book “MRI The Basics” along with over 40 peer-reviewed publications including my latest entitled “Consumer Medicine’s Origins and Harms.” Just in time for this year’s Lincoln-Douglas resolution! I interpret ultrasounds for three pro-life pregnancy centers in San Antonio and CT exams for Tenwek Missionary Hospital in Kenya. I enjoy World War II and Lord of the Rings tabletop miniature gaming. My wife Clare is from Thetford, England, and we have been married for 27 very happy years (I saved the best for last!). If you elect me, I promise to serve you with honor.
3. Ciro Lopez:
Hello, Stoa family! My name is Ciro Lopez and I’m putting my name in the hat to be on the Stoa board. I’m excited for the chance to contribute to this great organization. Before I ask for your vote, I’m sure you all are wondering who I am, especially since most of you all don’t know me. Here’s a little about me:
I’m a proud Stoa dad that lives in the Northern Virginia area near Washington, DC. Our family has been in the speech and debate world for about six years. Been quite the roller coaster ride since we started. I’ve been married to my amazing wife, Ann, for almost 24 years! We have four wonderful kids that range in age from 22 down to 14. Our two oldest are in college and our two younger ones are still with us (competing in tournaments on most weekends making us parents pretty exhausted). We’ve homeschooled all our kids for the majority of their K-12 years and certainly wish that we would have found speech and debate sooner for our older kids to take part. Within Stoa world, I’ve been mostly a behind-the-scenes dad helping out our local club by providing background info on technology topics and helping out with local tournaments (e.g., recruiting, judging, facilities upkeep, etc.). For the wider Stoa community, I spoke at the Institute for Principal Studies’ First Look conference last September that covered the Team Policy resolution for this year.
When I’m not doing Chick-Fil-A runs for tournaments, I work at the Pentagon for the U.S. Navy. I lead the Digital Capabilities and Plans branch for the Navy’s Digital Warfare Office. I oversee strategy development for technology integration within Navy operations. This includes software modernization, data science and analytics, digital engineering, and artificial intelligence. On the educational front, I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill back in 2005 with a doctorate in chemistry.
If given the opportunity, I hope to use all my background, energy and skills to advance the mission of Stoa and serve this great Stoa community. Thank you for reading and I pray that you all have an amazing, low stress, safe and healthy rest of the season with a plethora of community judges coming to your tournaments.
4. Janice Tham:
I grew up in Singapore, where I graduated from school with a diploma in teaching. After teaching in elementary school there for six years, my husband and I moved to Tulsa in 1996 to attend Oral Roberts University. For most of the years after graduation my husband, Chris, worked as a church administrator; I graduated and passed the CPA exam. I worked as a tax accountant for a number of years prior to moving into full-time homeschooling. Over the years, I have been a Classical Conversations tutor various times and tutor Mandarin as a second language. My favorite extracurricular activity is working as a musical director for a Tulsa homeschool musical group for the last eight seasons.
I have homeschooled all four of our children. All of them have been or currently are competing in Stoa. Our oldest is starting medical school this year, while our youngest is competing as a junior -- she is very excited to move up to seniors next year!
My journey to Stoa started with a friend inviting me to judge at a local Stoa tournament, and the rest is history! This is our family’s 7th year in Stoa. I co-lead the LAUNCH club based in Oklahoma, and serve on Stoa’s Tools and Tabulation Committee. Various positions I’ve held at tournaments include hosting a local Stoa tournament and working in Ballot Push and Tab Directing at several others. Out of these positions, I am most familiar with Tournament Tabulation work and am grateful to be NITOC 2022’s Tab Director.
I am an extrovert at heart; talking to people, working with young people, energizes me. We, as a family, owe much to Stoa. We value the training and the opportunities, and the friendships and support. I am happy to assist any way I can in helping to train students and reach the world for Christ.
5. Claiborne Thornton:
I am a Christian man, husband, father, and engineer. I currently work for Industrial Environmental Consultants, LLC in Nashville, Tennessee, which I started in 2013 following the closing of a predecessor company.
Since 1984 I’ve served as President of the Tennessee Home Education Association, THEA, and with my wife Lana, encouraged Christian home school speech and debate in Tennessee since Mike Farris introduced us to it in 1997. From that time, I have supported this activity in many ways, usually “behind the scenes”, working with our tournament director Lana.
In 2000 I was one of the founders and am currently a board member of the Christian Communicators of TN, CCT, a sister organization to THEA for Christian speech and debate. In that role I assist in determining the Apologetics Questions for CCT’s Junior Apologetics questions as well as the questions used for THEA’s annual Apologetics Speech Contest held in conjunction with our Homeschool Day at the Capitol.
My support of speech and debate includes the goal to see at least one club in every one of our 95 Tennessee counties. As most of the 513,000 elected positions in the US are in our local counties, I have prayed that we might see epistemologically self-conscious Christian candidates running for each of those positions. Christian homeschool speech and debate can prepare young people to be well-trained and godly leaders across every vocation and calling, including elected officials.
Lana and I have been blessed with three children and one grandson. Our youngest son is 31, so we have not homeschooled for several years, but Lana did teach our children for a total of 29 years. We are now empty nesters with good strength and willing hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to serve our King and those He would bring around us.
Together we greatly enjoy both of our family gatherings, being with our immediate, extended and our Christian homeschool family. We enjoy our time with family on the lake, at the beach, at her brother’s Texas ranch, at the world’s longest running family reunion on my side and seeking our King.
In our 20’s, Lana and I attended 3 years of Bible school. I continue to intensely love my Bible study, which has led me to write a commentary on John 6, soon to be published, and a commentary on I John, now in its early stages. Exposing myself to His truth, I work to remove all filters and accept my Father’s word to me. He wants me to grow, and I love to know Him better. He is my life. I’m renewed daily by Him and His love for me. His love for all His children is our greatest treasure.