2024 IESO Staff (additional staff will be added on a rolling basis)
David Madden
Co-Tournament Director, IESO 2024; Founder and Co-Executive Director, International Academic Competitions
David Madden is the co-founder and co-Executive Director of International Academic Competitions and the International Environmental Science Olympiad. He began his involvement in academic competitions in the 1990’s playing quiz bowl for Ridgewood High School and Princeton University. In 2004, he appeared as a contestant on the American quiz show Jeopardy! winning 19 games in a row. He also participated in the Jeopardy! All Star Games tournament in early 2019 which he and his teammates won, and was a semifinalist in the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament earlier in 2024. While taking coursework to become a social studies teacher, he established the first competitions in the International Academic Competitions family in June 2010. For the past 14 years, David has overseen IAC as Executive Director, and as of 2024, approximately 100,000 students in over 50 countries compete in IAC events each school year. David is also a published art historian, an avid bird watcher (which he has done on six continents; Antarctica still awaits), an Ambassador for Environmental Education with the Rainforest Alliance, and once hiked the entire length of the US east coast for the Fisher House Foundation, a veterans charity. He enjoys running, skiing, baking chocolate chip cookies, and playing with his three cheeky parakeets.
Nolwenn Madden
Co-Tournament Director, IESO 2024; Co-Executive Director, International Academic Competitions
Nolwenn Madden is the co-Executive Director of International Academic Competitions and the co-founder of the International Geography Championships. Prior to her career in academic competitions, Nolwenn studied at the French grande école EM Lyon where she received a MS in Management. She also worked as a translator for Microsoft and booking.com before launching the International History Bee and Bowl in 2011. She has organized and directed hundreds of tournaments for IAC throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and oversees organizational strategy and outreach for IAC. Nolwenn and David have together overseen the International History Olympiad (since its launch in 2015) and International Geography Championships (since its launch in 2018); the structure of the International Environmental Science Olympiad is modeled on these events. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the ukulele, skiing and goofing around with Apple, Maui, and Gigi (the aforementioned cheeky parakeets) as well as playing the cello, baking delicious French desserts, and traveling.
Deborah Pettingill
Logistics Director
Deborah Pettingill is the Senior Director of Operations for International Academic Competitions where she supervises all of the staff in the United States and Canada and is the Event Coordinator for both the Varsity and Junior Varsity National Championships and the Middle and Elementary School National Championships. She joined IAC full time in June of 2021 after working for IAC part time as a Coordinator for the Middle and Elementary School Division and directing tournaments around the country. Deborah was a history teacher for 22 years at Largo High School in Florida where she taught both US and World History. Deborah coached the History Bowl Team, was the advisor for Rho Kappa (the History Honor Society), and coordinated both the school and county National History Day competitions. She enjoys traveling with Eleanor, her adventure cat, fostering kittens for rescue organizations, and participating in historical reenactments.
Jason Flowers
Director of Exams & Fieldwork
Jason Flowers is the Director of Exams for IAC and the 2024 International Environmental Science Olympiad. Jason joined IAC in 2015 as a Team Leader for the US Geography Team and as the head writer for the US Geography Championships (USGC). Since then, he has helped to write the US History Bee and National Political Science Bee qualifying exams, all levels of USGC exams, and the National Championship Exams. In addition to writing for IAC, Jason is the Quiz Bowl and History Bowl coach at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, TX, where his teams have won two National History Bowl titles and four quiz bowl national championships.
Jay Wickliff
Carbon Credits Trading Game Coordinator
As Director of Strategic Planning, Jay helps chart the future of IAC. He is the co-founder of the National Political Science Bee and coordinates the related discussion groups. He designs academic games like the Great Trading Game and MCs award ceremonies at major competitions including every International History Olympiad. As a teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, he coached the History Bowl team to a National Championship. Jay has also served as Executive Director at Presidential Classroom, a Washington-based civic education program for outstanding high school students, where he founded the Future World Leaders Summit for teenage leaders from around the world. During his career in human resources management, he worked as Vice President for Global Human Resources at Gerber Scientific, Inc., a mid-sized New York Stock Exchange listed company.
Joan Dietrich
Director of Staff
Joan is IAC’s Regional Coordinator for Canada and is delighted to be working at her second IAC world championship-level event in Puerto Rico. A native of Vancouver, Canada, Joan participated in Reach for the Top, a national quiz competition, when she was in high school. Joan has a degree in English Literature from the University of British Columbia and is certified as a Montessori Early Childhood educator. Her appearance on Jeopardy! in 2019 led her to working with IAC, and she has read for many online tournaments. Joan enjoys playing trivia with her online team, quilting, and spending time with her family and her energetic corgi.
John Garner
Co-Director of Field Trips
John Garner is a former high school and middle school social studies teacher, who currently serves as the US National Director of Outreach and Engagement for International Academic Competitions. When he is not spreading word about IAC in schools all over the USA you can find him staffing regional and national championships and facilitating engaging events for students participating in the International History Olympiad, International Geography Championships, and International Environmental Science Olympiad. In his sixteen years of teaching middle and high school social studies, John was repeatedly recognized for excellence in teaching, most recently being named the 2022 Gilder Lehrman Georgia History Teacher of the Year. Additionally, John serves as the president of the National History Club and sits on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Council for History Education. Having led close to two hundred field trips in his career, including trips for IAC in four different countries at our world championship level events, John is excited to bring his enthusiasm and experience to IESO and Puerto Rico!
Scott Fowler
Co-Director of Field Trips
Shortly after being awarded IAC Middle School Coach of the Year in 2015, Scott began his career with IAC at the first International History Olympiad in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. He has staffed every National Championships since then, as well as five International Championships. Scott also works as a Regional Coordinator for IAC, scheduling, organizing, and directing Middle and Elementary School Regional Finals tournaments, and assists with outreach in the USA.
Scott’s middle school teams have placed in the top 10 at the National Championships five times, and were crowned NAQT National Champions in 2024. Scott and his wife Traci enjoy wine, traveling, and soccer.
Audra Dankwardt
Audra is currently a PhD student in School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She has spent most of her life in Massachusetts, and joined the IAC staffing team in Fall 2021. She has served as New England Outreach Coordinator, US Operation Specialist, and tournament director for regional tournaments across New England. She loves traveling and is excited to be joining the team of IAC staff at IESO 2024 in Puerto Rico!
Betsy Cotto
Norman Aponte
Norman Aponte has collaborated with International Academic Competitions since 2022 when he helped bring IAC to Puerto Rico. Since then, he has participated as a coach in regional and national tournaments with schools such as The Palmas Academy and Caguas Private School. Mr. Aponte is especially passionate about history, which has led him to pursue postgraduate studies in that discipline. Today, he is a professor at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. In regards to environmental science, he is a promoter of the Sustainable Development Goals in Puerto Rico, a role he performs as a member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico chapter of the United Nations Association (UNA-USA Puerto Rico).
Vella Ross
Vella Ross is a chemical biologist at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, and an aspiring ornithologist. They started at IAC three years ago and are excited to staff IESO, and particularly the Birds of Puerto Rico trip! In their free time, they enjoy birding, reading, swimming, and hanging out with their cat, Malina.