RealBridge & BAMSA: Teacher and Coach Conference - Directory of speakers

Rob Barrington is a world renowned bridge teacher and professional player originally based out of New York City but now living in South Florida.  Rob's passion for bridge has made him one of the most popular "bridge influencers" in the game.  His YouTube channel has over 3 million views and he operates the popular bridgelesson.com website.

Gavin Wolpert was born in Toronto, Ontario to a bridge playing family. His mother Hazel, a bridge teacher, started to teach him bridge at the age of seven. Later he trained with the Canadian junior bridge team, and subsequently moved to Florida, USA. He is a bridge teacher, streamer and professional bridge player

He is married to Jenny Wolpert, formerly Jenny Ryman of Sweden, another professional player. They have three children.

Alongside a career in IT, managing some large, high profile and complex projects, Nicky has been playing, teaching, and organising bridge for over 50 years. She teaches every week online and face-to-face.

She runs a club with 120 members, providing enjoyable duplicate. The choice of system is a key part of the way each player plays the game. Equally the choice of system to teach must be made freely according to the teacher’s experience and the learners' needs.

With over 25 years of experience in Sales and Marketing, Tracey Bauer has honed her skills working with iconic brands like Chanel, RayBan, Bulgari, and Tiffany and Co. Tracey brings a wealth of knowledge in brand positioning, customer engagement, and market strategy.

Tracey has skills in digital marketing, particularly in the realm of social media. Her innovative approaches leverage Artificial Intelligence to identify and engage niche markets effectively. She believes that the same principles that have driven success in the fashion and luxury sectors can be applied to promote the mind sport of bridge.

An avid bridge player, Tracey is deeply involved in the bridge community. She is committed to using her marketing expertise to revitalize interest in the game, especially among newcomers. Her unique blend of traditional marketing wisdom and cutting-edge digital strategies makes her a thought leader in the field.

Michael Berkowitz tells his life story, through bridge, every month in the ACBL Bulletin. His funny, instructive columns show how he has often learned important lessons the hard way. He is passionate about bridge and has worked in the bridge world writing, directing, and teaching.

Michael learned from the very best: his parents, both of whom are world champions. Michael believed that they would wince every time he missed an overtrick (they deny this). As a result, he understands how difficult it can be to get to the next level of bridge play without getting discouraged.

His clear instruction allows students to make concrete steps forward without getting lost in pursuit of perfection. In addition to teaching for Bridge with Larry Cohen, Michael is the Program Chair for the ACBL Education Foundation, a non-profit working to promote bridge for all. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Emily, and dog Yeti.

Robert Todd is a professional bridge teacher and player whose hometown is Tallahassee, Florida, but you'll find him all over the country and world, teaching and playing bridge at every level from the local club to world championships.

He began playing bridge at a very young age in his parents' party bridge games and came to duplicate while starting his graduate degree in Mathematics. He spent a year in Helsinki, Finland, where he met and played with many fine European players. When he returned to the USA, he decided to become a bridge professional himself and never looked back!

Robert has degrees in Mathematics, Physics, and Political Science from Florida State University and Mathematics from the University of Helsinki. He's been a computer programmer as well as a university instructor.

One of the top teachers in North America, Robert is often a featured lecturer at Regional and National Tournaments. He hosts bridge events ranging from small private workshops to 150-200 player large seminars. He has co-hosted events with some of the all time best bridge teachers (Audrey Grant, Larry Cohen, etc... ) and they all say that Robert is "the next generation of great bridge instructor and entertainer!"

Robert is the President of the ACBL Educational Foundation, helping to develop ways to attract more people to bridge. He writes for the ACBL Bulletin, and has a large number of digital and physical publications - Books, Lessons, Practice Hands, Videos, Webinars, and more.

Morten is the founder of the Danish School Bridge Association, Chairman of the Danish Youth Committee, and works full-time bridge teaching at all levels.

He works on improving the image of the game, to make it more attractive to new players, and easier for "bridge ambassadors" to get friends to play.

Morten has played many times on the Danish Open Team, and is currently captaining the team.

He lives in Denmark with his wife and has 3 grown-up kids.

I studied mathematics and psychology and worked as a therapist. I have been working as a bridge teacher for over 30 years and play in the German national league.

In addition to articles in the DBV magazine, I have written two bridge books, "Leicht reizbar" (The basics of bidding) and "Corona Papers" (A reading book for bridge players).

Joan Butts has represented Australia in world championships. While she loves playing bridge, her real passion is teaching. She has introduced thousands of students to the game, has owned bridge clubs for thirty years and was the ABF National Teaching Coordinator for 12. She developed a comprehensive Accreditation Programme for teachers. She organised Celebrity Speakers events, and hosted many teaching  forums.  

The growth of Joan’s community of teachers and students led to the launch of her Online School of Bridge in 2017. The site is home to carefully curated lessons, games, videos and quizzes, and contains hundreds of interactive hands played against robots. In July 2023, the Online School of Bridge was updated and moved to a modern educational platform. It is probably a world first for an interactive online  bridge programme. Students “choose their own adventure”, move at their own pace, monitor their progress, and receive guidance along the way. Joan believes that online and real life bridge should flourish side by side. 

https://www.joanbuttsbridge.com

Meriem Daldoul Dorai born 1976, Tunis, Tunisia, of Tunisian and French nationality.

She is married and mother of 2 children. She was a university lecturer in marketing disciplines for seven years. With her penchant for organizing different actions, she has experience in events.

Currently she is the manager of a company in international trade. She has a great passion next to song and dance which is bridge. She took her first lesson in this intellectual sport in 2003.

She has won several prizes and titles at the national level (in Tunisia) but also at the international level where she was twice vice-champion of Africa which allowed her to participate in the world bridge championships in China in Wuhan in 2019, and in Italy at Salsomaggiore in 2022.

She followed training for trainers for teaching bridge in September 2023, with French teachers: Mr. Patrick CHALARD and Mr. Vincent COMBEAU.

I am 45 years old, I am an engineer and I live in France, in Paris. I worked as a bridge teacher, author and coach for more than 15 years, and I continue this activity even today out of passion. I'm an elected board member of the FFB, the French Bridge Federation and I am in charge of development. 

I now work in an Artificial Intelligence start-up, and am elected to the board of my federation, in charge of development. 

At the same time, in recent years, I created the site www.bridge-training.com which allows a teacher, author or federation to have any educational board played for free. 

My goal: to remove all obstacles to introduce people to bridge and increase the playing time of learners!

https://www.ffbridge.fr/

contact@bridge-training.com

Deborah Drysdale, Co-founder: www.planet-bridge.org

Deborah lives in San Francisco, CA, USA and is a retired psychotherapist and social justice activist.  She taught bridge to kids in local schools before COVID, then pivoted to teaching online in 2020. She is co-founder of Planet Bridge, a non-profit program for new and rusty bridge players.  deborah@planet-bridge.org

Allison Evans

Allison Evans lives in Corvallis, OR, USA and teaches microbiology to college students.  She is a bridge enthusiast who enjoys introducing new people to the game.