Ed Lee III
Senior Director of the Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue
Email: ewlee@emory.edu
Biography
Ed Lee III, EdD, is Senior Director of the Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate Deliberation, and Dialogue (BF), which houses Emory’s nationally acclaimed debate team and its cutting-edge dialogue programs.
As Senior Director, Ed works directly with Emory Admission's Woodruff Scholars Program to recruit and support high-caliber students and the Glen Pelham Alumni Foundation to maintain purposeful and engaging relations with Emory alums. He was the 2015 Ross K. Smith National Coach of the Year and a three-time recipient of the James Unger Award given to the coach of the best debate team in the country. He leads Emory’s debate program that consistently develops nationally ranked debaters while pursuing an access mission that provides the opportunity for debate training to all Emory undergraduates. Before coming to Emory, Ed served as the Director of Debate at the University of Alabama and the Director of UC Berkeley’s Bay Area Urban Debate League.
Ed (edlee3@converselee.com) is also the owner and principal creative for Converselee, LLC. Converselee supports organizations working to cultivate their collective genius through improved communication and collaboration strategies. Ed is a highly sought-after trainer and facilitator whose work focuses on the interplay between communication, culture, and diversity and how those can be harnessed to improve the workplace and other communities. His work includes the use of diversity circles, book salons, and collaborative art displays that incorporate social network theory with the pursuit of social justice to produce more innovative and responsive policies, practices, and procedures.
Ed is a relentless advocate for public debate and dialogue. He is national media commentator for U.S. Presidential Debates and the use of arguments in public discourse. He is routinely seen on national and local media outlets discussing presidential debate strategies and their impact on national politics.
Ed has a Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Georgia’s Institute for Higher Education (IHE), a Master’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of Alabama, and is currently studying the interconnections between religion, justice, and peace building at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.