You Gotta Know…These NAQT Members

As a limited liability corporation, NAQT is a partnership run by members who divide the responsibilities of writing questions, organizing tournaments, and running a business. This page lists NAQT’s current members. We also maintain biographies of members emeriti who are still involved in an advisory capacity and former members who have moved on to other things.

Seth Teitler

President

Seth grew up in Northern California, and began competing in quiz bowl while attending the University of California-Berkeley, where he played on teams that won an ACF and an NAQT national title. He continued competing while in graduate school at the University of Chicago, where he played on teams that won three NAQT and three ACF national titles. He received the 2011 N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award, and he became a member of NAQT in 2012.

Jonah Greenthal

Vice President for Operations

Webmaster

Jonah grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago, where he won two state championships with New Trier High School. In college he played at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. He became a member in 2013.

Jeff Hoppes

Vice President for Communications

Jeff played quiz bowl for four years at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During his undergraduate years at Princeton University, he helped lead its team to three NAQT undergraduate titles. He moved on to graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley, where his teams won one ACF and two NAQT national titles. Jeff became a member of NAQT in 2009. He received the 2012 N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2014 Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award.

Dwight E. Kidder

Vice President for Marketing

Director of New College Programs

Dwight Kidder graduated from Cornell University with Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Dwight played one year for Chartiers-Houston High School in Pennsylvania and still holds the league’s record for individual scoring. While a player at Cornell University, Dwight founded the Academic Quiz Organization and appeared in six national championship tournaments. When not writing for NAQT, Dwight advises several Pennsylvania academic teams. He also has written The 99 Critical Shots in Quiz Bowl, a first textbook for quiz bowl players and coaches focusing on bonus play, fundamental knowledge for competition, and best practices of team management. Dwight was a founding member of NAQT.

Chad Kubicek

Chief Financial Officer

Director of Community College Programs

Chad Kubicek grew up in Columbus, Nebraska, where the lack of quiz bowl opportunities led him to join the forensics team, and he became Columbus High’s first-ever double-ruby member of the National Forensic League. Matriculating at Iowa State University, he joined the quiz bowl team as a freshman, was a teammate of Rob Hentzel for five years, and served as the club’s treasurer and tournament director before graduating with a degree in mathematics. He became a full member of NAQT in 2000 and was elected CFO in 2003. Chad and his wife Shelly and their handsome seventh-grader Matthew currently reside in the Kansas City area.

Nathan Murphy

Vice President for Logistics

Nathan Murphy spent his childhood first in Pittsburgh and then in Boise, where he captained Bishop Kelly High School to its first state quiz bowl title. He played at Gonzaga University, and in 2007 he earned his degree in mechanical engineering. Later that year he joined The Boeing Company and volunteered at his first HSNCT; he continued to work at various NAQT championships and became Logistics Director for the first time in 2014, a member of NAQT in 2015, and Vice President for Logistics in 2023. Now an Embraer Phenom 300 Captain at Flexjet, Nathan lives near Tampa with his wife, Eileen, and their children, Annika, Russell, and Keaton.

Jason Thompson

Chief Editor

Jason grew up in Kentucky, where he began participating in state-format academic competition in fourth grade. He holds degrees in music from Transylvania University (BA, 2005), Ball State University (MM, 2007), and the University of Arizona (DMA, 2010). In 2011, Jason began coaching the academic team at Samuel V. Noe Middle School; during his tenure, Noe became one of the premiere middle school programs in the country, finishing in the top ten at the MSNCT three times (including tying for 5th in their first year of attendance). Jason became an NAQT writer and editor in 2013 and a member in 2019. In addition to his work with NAQT, he is a composer, music editor, and marching band designer.

Eric Bell

Eric Bell grew up in Oklahoma, where he won two state Academic Bowl titles at Broken Arrow High School and was a five-time Nationals All-Star as the co-founder of the Oklahoma Academic Team. Eric lives in Las Vegas. In his free time, Eric plays duplicate bridge (holding the rank of Ruby Life Master) and is a militant fan of the Oklahoma Sooners and Vegas Golden Knights. Eric was a founding member of NAQT.

Joel Gluskin

Joel Gluskin grew up in Buffalo Grove, IL, where he played on the quiz bowl team at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, including the team that won the school’s first state championship in 2000. Joel has an undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, where he majored in mathematics, political science, and economics. Currently, Joel lives with his wife Talya in Houston, where he is a senior refined products trader at Shell Trading (US) Company. Joel became a member in 2006.

Andrew Hart

Andrew grew up in Minnesota and first played quiz bowl at Chaska High School. From 2006 to 2013, first as an undergrad and then as a law student, he competed for the University of Minnesota, where he won five undergraduate championships and the 2011 NAQT overall national title, and was runner-up at ACF Nationals in 2010 and 2011. He has edited over two dozen college tournaments, and has previously served in leadership roles in every major national quiz bowl group. He works as an attorney in Minnesota.

Larissa Kelly

Larissa grew up in Massachusetts, where she played on the Science Bowl team at Newton North High School. At Princeton University, she was part of three quiz bowl teams that won NAQT undergraduate titles. While earning a Ph.D. in history from the University of California-Berkeley, she became the first woman to win more than five games on Jeopardy!. In 2019 she was part of the team that won the Jeopardy! All-Star Games. Larissa became a member of NAQT in 2016.

Emily Pike

Emily’s dream of playing quiz bowl was sparked in middle school by the television show Head of the Class. Highlights of her ten-year playing career include captaining the DeKalb High School team in the Illinois state championships and captaining Carleton College’s “Surge Squad” to the 1999 NAQT Undergraduate National Championship. Emily graduated with a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton and earned her M.D. from Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine. She completed her residency in family medicine at the Fairview-University Medical Center and Smiley’s Clinic in Minneapolis and is now a part-time physician for Fairview Urgent Care. As a doctor in a fast-paced clinic and a mom of four, Emily has mastered the art of multitasking, which is why you’ll usually find her running the Information Desk at NAQT’s national championships. Emily became a member of NAQT in 2000 and served as Vice President for Operations for twelve years before retiring from that position in 2019.

Bernadette Spencer

Bernadette grew up in Minnesota, where she played quiz bowl for IHM–St. Lukes (now St. Thomas More), DeLaSalle High School, and the University of Minnesota. She has logistics-directed over a dozen national championships. She became a member in 2022.

Andrew Yaphe

Andrew grew up in Virginia, and became involved in academic competition while attending Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the early 1990s. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, he led his team to two ACF titles, and won three more while a graduate student in English at the University of Chicago, where he also picked up two NAQT championships. While attending Stanford Law School, he won his sixth ACF national championship in 2010. Formerly the director of operations for the Academic Competition Federation, he received the 2007 N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to the quiz bowl community. Andrew works as an attorney in California.

R. Robert Hentzel

R. Robert Hentzel graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in physics and mathematics. An avid and successful academic competitor since high school, in 1992 Robert founded the Iowa State Academic Quiz Bowl Club. Robert won the 2006 N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award “for meritorious services in sustaining and enriching collegiate academic competitions” and the 2010 Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award “for his dedication to popularizing pyramidal questions in high school quiz bowl in new regions around the United States.” Robert and his wife Emily Pike and their children Nathaniel, Timothy, Eleanor, and Margaret currently reside in Bloomington, Minnesota. He became a member of NAQT in 1997 and served as president from 1998 to 2019, Chief Editor from 2002 to 2014 and Chief Technical Officer from 1998 to 2022 before retiring from active membership in 2022.