Director
Chris Romero is a 20+ year veteran of quiz bowl competition; he began playing as a middle schooler in 1990. Chris graduated in 1996 from Catholic High School (New Iberia, LA), and in 2000/2002 from Texas A&M (Computer Engineering/ Mathematics). While an undergraduate, Chris founded the Texas A&M Aggie Bowl. In 2002 & 2004, Chris served as hosting director of NAQT’s High School National tournaments at the University of Texas and Houston. Chris was the captain of Texas A&M’s 2006 ACF National Championship winning team. Chris coached the 2011 Texas All-State team to an NASAT Championship. Chris is a teacher at St. John’s School in Houston.
Assistant Director
Eric Kwartler is a 2003 graduate of Bellaire High School and a 2008 graduate of the University of Texas. In 2008, Eric served as head editor of ACF Nationals tournament and in 2009 as the chief editor of Chicago Open. Eric is a graduate of the University of Texas law school.
Advisory Board Members
Candace Benefiel is currently an Associate Professor at the Texas A&M Evans Library. She is a graduate of Brazoswood High School, of Rice University, and of the University of Texas. She is also currently an English PhD student and was a member of Texas A&M’s 2006 ACF National Championship winning team. She is the faculty advisor of the Texas A&M quiz bowl team and has been involved in quiz bowl for more than 20 years.
Steve Fontenot is a 1996 graduate of Strake Jesuit High School (Houston) and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Southwestern University (Georgetown) in 2000. He currently works in the sports editorial department at the San Antonio Express News.
Thomas Littrell is a 2011 graduate of Austin’s Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Thomas helped LASA to four top 5 national finishes and lead the 2011 Texas NASAT championship team. Thomas is currently a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania
Moderators & Contributors
Jacob Aronowitz is a 2010 graduate of Bellaire High School and is currently a history major at the University of Texas-San Antonio.
Tom Brenner is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Texas A&M University. He graduated in 2011 with a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from A&M where he was a member of the A&M Quiz Bowl team. Tom played his high school quiz bowl at Ovid-Elsie High School in Elsie, Michigan, where he was twice named to the Mid-Michigan Conference First Team and made 10 appearances on QuizBusters. He is a 2005 graduate of the University of Michigan.
Bryce Durgin is a 2007 graduate of Indiana’s Culver Military Academy and a 2011 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He was a founding member of the Culver Quiz Bowl team and a member of Notre Dame’s first ICT qualifier. He directed a number of high school and collegiate tournaments and currently is a Statistics Ph.D. student at Texas A&M University.
Adam Escandell is a 1999 graduate of Houston’s Stratford High School and attended the University of Texas where he majored in History. Adam has been active in Texas Quiz Bowl activities for a number of years and currently serves the coach for Harmony School in Austin.
Jason Flowers is a graduate of Morgan City (Louisiana) and Louisiana State University anwhere he participated with his high school’s Cajun Quiz Bowl team and LSU’s college bowl team. Mr. Flowers is the quiz bowl coach at LASA where he has coached his teams to 6 national top ten finishes.
Henry Gorman is a mathematics major at Rice University. Henry is a 2009 graduate the Charter School of Wilmington, Delaware. As a high school senior, Henry’s quiz bowl team won both NAQT’s HSNCT and PACE’s NSC.
Trey Morris is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and director of undergraduate education at the Scott & White clinic in Temple. Trey is a 1994 graduate of Midland Lee High School and attended Harvard University and UT-Permian Basin. Trey was a member of Texas A&M’s 2006 ACF National Championship winning team.
Aaron Pellowski is a 2011 graduate of Austin’s Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Aaron helped LASA to two top 5 national finishes in 2011 and is currently a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Zach Yeung is currently a biochemistry and political science major at Rice University. He is a 2008 graduate of St. Johns school.
Emeritus
Albert Bayer is graduate of the University of Texas and of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy where he was the student founder of the LASA Quiz Bowl Team.
Susan Mitchell Losavio is a 1999 graduate of Memorial High School (Houston) and earned her Ph.D. in Chemical engineering at Texas A&M University in 2007. Susan currently works as an engineer for Exxon-Mobil. She was a member of Texas A&M’s 2006 ACF National Championship winning team and the following year was a Jeopardy Champion.
Matthew Nance is a 2003 graduate of Coronado High School (El Paso) and a 2006 graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Texas Law School.
Chris Sewell is a 1998 graduate of Franklin High School (El Paso), a 2002 graduated of Texas A&M, and earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in 2007. While at A&M, Chris began to develop Sewell Quiz Bowl Statistics, the nation’s preeminent quiz bowl statistics program. Due to his work on SQBS Chris was awarded ACF’s Carper Award and PACE’s Benjamin Cooper Award in 2008.
