On a recent Saturday in a few classrooms on Grounds, some 50 people from across the state and beyond gathered to talk, listen and learn with each other, and to envision the steps needed to enhance safety and health in troubled communities. 

They were social workers, educators, returning citizens who had been incarcerated, community-based violence interrupters, medical trauma personnel, police officers, people recovering from drug addiction, two judges, people who had been homeless, a philanthropist and the mayor of Charlottesville. And there were several undergraduate and graduate students from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, as well as from Howard University. 

They had been invited to the daylong workshop by Batten’s Brian N. Williams, associate professor, and Kyle S. H. Dobson, assistant professor, with the goal of bringing together people with diverse experiences of the myriad issues that negatively impact personal, professional, and communal lives. 

“We had people who’ve dealt with issues around addiction, homelessness, gun violence, incarceration, lack of education, and lack of mental health resources. Some had the lived experience of those struggles and others worked in the criminal justice system and the public health system,” Williams says.  

The session was the latest in a series of community-oriented dialogues held since 2018, when Williams joined the Batten faculty, under the auspices of his “PEGLLLLAB,” which stands for Public Engagement in Governance Looking, Listening and Learning Lab. The events exemplify the deep public engagement that is foundational to his research, and that of Dobson, as well. 

A mentorship grows

Dobson joined the Batten faculty last fall, though his journey to Garrett Hall has been a long, somewhat serendipitous one. After receiving his B.S. in psychology in 2013, he got a job as research lab manager at Batten, and worked here for Professor Ben Converse for two years. He went on to get his master’s and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and worked as a post-doc research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. 

In 2022, he was invited back to Batten to give a talk about his research on how organizations devalue employees’ authenticity to ensure conformity and reduce conflict at the cost of inclusion, engagement and performance — in settings from police departments to schools. Williams was impressed.

“When I see anyone like Kyle who’s doing that heavy lifting of public engagement, which takes time, I’m down to help,” Williams says. He invited Dobson back to Grounds to participate in a PEGLLLAB event, and in the fall of 2022, Dobson applied for a faculty position. Unfortunately, his interview that November was rescheduled due to the tragic shootings of three UVA student-athletes on Grounds by another student. 
 
“It made me feel even more connected to UVA and Charlottesville. If there was anything that was screaming at me that I needed to be here, to do good work here in this community, it was that,” Dobson says. 

“I’m so thankful to be able to learn from Brian and work with him on these meetings. Putting people in a room who would be yelling at each other in other contexts but treating them with respect and empathy – I don’t know of many others who can do that like Brian.” 

Williams stresses the importance in his work of taking time and building trust with people, something he benefitted from early in his career from a number of public servants – police officers and others – who were his own mentors. 

“Since people have poured into me, I think it is only fair I pour into others,” he says. 

Batten Associate Professor Gabrielle Adams, who also mentors Dobson, notes that he uses a variety of methods to address questions that have important implications for policy and leadership. “Community engagement and listening are at the very base of his research approach. It is already clear how much students are benefitting from his perspective and contributions.”

A day of sharing, and hope

At the PEGLLLAB session last month, the participants had a series of intense conversations about the root causes and intersections of societal issues and the compounded impacts they have on individuals and communities. Batten students facilitated the breakout groups and conversation was guided by a discussion model called “human-centered design.”

The model emphasizes empathy and understanding of someone’s pain from past experience, and directly involves the people most impacted by the issue, says Sarad Davenport, an expert in human-centered design and lecturer at Batten who helped lead the session.

“It’s an important framework to use when considering the wellness of a community,” he said. “It allowed a large group of stakeholders across many sectors to have constructive discussion that led to proposed solutions on issues in a way that is more likely to produce a more desirable reality.”

As the day continued, the breakout rooms became lined with large flip-chart-sized sticky notes with dozens of comments and ideas for addressing violence, addiction, mental health, food deserts and more.

“I was impressed by the makeup of the group which is a testament to Professors Williams and Dobson. There was a lot of trust at the outset which made the work that much more constructive,” Davenport said.

The student experience

Among the more than 20 Batten students who participated in the session were graduate students Ava Purcell,  Amber Townes and Tyler Sesker (all  graduating this spring), who are in Dobson’s spring class, Police-Community Relations: Improving Interactions. Hear from these three students about why they wanted to be involved in the CVLLE session, and what they learned.

Read their stories here >>