Ganer Newman

Ganer Newman became the Director of Forensics at Western Kentucky University in 2014. Since then, he led the team to five (5) National Forensics Association (NFA) Individual Event Team Championships, six (6) NFA Lincoln Douglas Debate Team Championships, three (3) American Forensics Association Team National Championships, and one Pi Kappa Delta Team National Championship. Newman also served as the President of the Kentucky Forensics Association in 2016, 2020, and 2021.

He previously worked as the Assistant Director of Individual Events at Illinois State University Forensics Union, helping the team earn 4th place at the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament, co-founded of the Crescent City Communication Collective, and served as Director of Interpretation at one of the nation's largest high school forensics institutes. Ganer won the National Championship in Poetry Interpretation and Communication Analysis and the runner up in Program Oral Interpretation at the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament in 2010. He twice earned runner up in Rhetorical Criticism at the National Forensics Association Tournament in 2009 and 2010, helping the team sweep five national championships.

In 2013, he co-authored a book for the National Speech and Debate Association, Interpretation of Literature: Bringing Words to Life with Travis Kiger, which has since become the association's most read text on the subject. In 2015, he published his second book on communication, Authentic Communication: Public Speaking for Everyone with Jeff Hanan and Travis Kiger. In 2022, the National Speech and Debate Association published a second edition of Interpretation of Literature: Bringing Words to Life.