About News Batten's Lipscomb Receives UVA's Prestigious Public Impact-Focused Research Award Jan 31, 2022 Meredith Cole Batten's Lipscomb Receives UVA's Prestigious Public Impact-Focused Research Award Batten professor Molly Lipscomb received the Public Impact-Focused Research Award for her work looking at the impact of bringing public services to low-income households in countries where services are needed. Molly Lipscomb, a professor at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Director of Social Innovation @ UVA, was honored by UVA for her outstanding research and scholarly activities. The University of Virginia on Friday honored faculty members across Grounds at the third annual Research Achievement Awards. Batten professors Jay Shimshack, Justin Kirkland, Gabrielle Adams, Benjamin Converse and Daphna Bassok were also honored for their work during the virtual award ceremony. “We are delighted to honor a strong and diverse cohort of faculty this year whose achievements in basic and public-impact-focused research, mentorship, collaboration and more reflect our core values as a research institution,” Melur “Ram” Ramasubramanian, vice president for research, said. “Our award-winning faculty pursue groundbreaking, creative and inspiring research in areas that range from nanocrystals to international law to muscle signaling,” Provost Liz Magill said. “The strength and impact of their ideas are a hallmark of the University’s research enterprise, and we are proud to honor their achievements.” “This year’s research award winners have made discoveries and generated knowledge that will have lasting impact on multiple fields, disciplines, and sectors, from the arts and sciences to health care and business. I’m grateful for their efforts and excited about the future of research at UVA,” President Jim Ryan said. Watch this video on the winners to learn more about their research. Public Impact-Focused Research Award Molly Lipscomb, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy Molly Lipscomb’s work looks at the impact of, and strategies for, bringing public services, such as electricity and sanitation, to low-income households in countries where these services are needed, including Brazil, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Much of her work is about finding creative ways that access can be improved around the margins when the government can’t afford network-level expansions to infrastructure. “Lipscomb’s focus on building strong partnerships with organizations outside of higher education is both unique and useful, and it collapses the boundaries between academia and the real world in a productive way,” Ian Solomon, dean of the Batten School and a professor of practice of public policy, said. Read Full Story in UVA Today Molly Lipscomb Molly Lipscomb is an associate professor of public policy and economics at the Batten School and the Director of the Center for Social Innovation at the University of Virginia. Lipscomb’s research focuses primarily on environmental issues in developing countries and adaptation to lack of centralized health and sanitation services. Read full bio Jay Shimshack Jay Shimshack is a professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Shimshack's research focuses on environmental regulation, environmental economics, corporate social behavior, and applied microeconomics for public policy. Read full bio Justin H. Kirkland Justin H. Kirkland is a professor of politics and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Kirkland specializes in American politics, legislative politics, and subnational politics. His research focuses on understanding the relationship between public opinion and legislative behavior, institutional rules and legislative outcomes, and methods for analyzing legislative choices. Read full bio Gabrielle Adams Gabrielle Adams is an associate professor of public policy and business administration at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and in the Darden School of Business’s Leadership and Organizational Behavior area. Adams studies the processes and dynamics that give rise to ‘good’ decisions, policies and conditions in organizations. Read full bio Benjamin Converse Benjamin Converse is an associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Department of Psychology. His research focuses on motivation, social judgment, problem solving and decision making. He teaches courses related to leadership and negotiations. Read full bio Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and associate director of EdPolicyWorks, a collaboration between the School of Education and Human Development and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her research focuses on early childhood education policy and efforts to improve early childhood education at scale, particularly policies aimed at supporting the early childhood education workforce. Read full bio Related Content Molly Lipscomb Decentralization and Pollution Spillovers: Evidence from the Re-Drawing of County Borders in Brazil Research Service Reform and Manufacturing Performance: Evidence from India Research Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement. Faculty Spotlight: The Social Innovator News Batten professor Molly Lipscomb has a creative solution to a public sanitation crisis—and a new vision for the center that’s helping to address it. Jay Shimshack Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States Research Particulate air pollution in the contiguous United States has decreased considerably over recent decades, but where exactly has that progress been made? Batten's Jay Shimshack and his co-authors dive in. Costly Sanctions and the Treatment of Frequent Violators in Regulatory Settings Research Regulators typically treat frequent violators more harshly. When does such harsh treatment maximize overall compliance? Batten Showcase 2022: Environmental Inequality and Public Policy ft. Jay Shimshack News In this lecture, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Jay Shimshack, probes the concept of environmental inequality - how it both shapes and is shaped by public policy. Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement. Justin H. Kirkland Gabrielle Adams The “Equal-Opportunity Jerk” Defense: Rudeness Can Obfuscate Gender Bias Research In this research, we identified a barrier that makes sexism hard to recognize: rudeness toward men. We found that observers judge a sexist perpetrator as less sexist if he is rude toward men. Anger Damns the Innocent Research False accusations permeate social life—from the mundane blaming of other people to more serious accusations of infidelity and workplace wrongdoing. Importantly, false accusations can have grave consequences, including broken relationships, job loss, and reputational damage. In this article, we document an equally pernicious phenomenon—the misuse of anger as a cue to predict whether a suspect has been falsely accused. Finding a Seat at the Interdisciplinary Research Table News UVA Batten hosted the “Annual Behavioral Science Across Grounds Conference” earlier this month, bringing some of the brightest minds of UVA’s research community to Garrett Hall to exchange ideas, interests, and insights. Associate professor Ben Converse gave the keynote. Meeting Overload Is a Fixable Problem News Batten School professor Gabe Adams spoke with American Talk about the benefits of adopting a subtraction mindset and how to get it done. Benjamin Converse Better Sharing of “Eco-Innovations” Can Combat Rising Climate Despair Research Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, along with Batten post-doc Maura Austin and other UVA researchers, have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized. People systematically overlook subtractive changes Research A series of problem-solving experiments reveal that people are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even when removing features is more efficient. Finding a Seat at the Interdisciplinary Research Table News UVA Batten hosted the “Annual Behavioral Science Across Grounds Conference” earlier this month, bringing some of the brightest minds of UVA’s research community to Garrett Hall to exchange ideas, interests, and insights. Associate professor Ben Converse gave the keynote. New Research: Sharing "Eco-Innovations" Can Ease Climate Despair News Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, and other UVA researchers have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized. Daphna Bassok Hard-to-staff centers: Exploring center-level variation in the persistence of child care teacher turnover Research High rates of teacher turnover in child care settings have negative implications for young children's learning experiences and for efforts to improve child care quality. Prior research has explored the prevalence and predictors of turnover at the individual teacher level, but less is known about turnover at the center level––specifically, how turnover varies across child care centers or whether staffing challenges persist year after year for some centers. This study tracks annual turnover rates for all publicly funded child care centers that were continuously operating in Louisiana from the 2015-16 to 2018-19 school years. Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research Bassok Wins Award to Study Childcare Access News UVA Batten Professor Daphna Bassok and her team were awarded a $1.2 million federal grant for a new project to accurately measure the number and quality of childcare options in communities across Virginia – a critical first step towards improving childcare access. UVA | Batten Faculty Excellence Award Winners News Each year, Batten’s Executive Committee selects the Batten Faculty Awards Winners in four areas of review -- research, teaching, service and engagement -- in recognition for the faculty members’ contributions throughout the previous year. We congratulate this year's winners: Ashley Jardina, Andy Pennock, Dan Player and Daphna Bassok. Stay Up To Date with the Latest Batten News and Events Subscribe
Molly Lipscomb Molly Lipscomb is an associate professor of public policy and economics at the Batten School and the Director of the Center for Social Innovation at the University of Virginia. Lipscomb’s research focuses primarily on environmental issues in developing countries and adaptation to lack of centralized health and sanitation services. Read full bio
Jay Shimshack Jay Shimshack is a professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Shimshack's research focuses on environmental regulation, environmental economics, corporate social behavior, and applied microeconomics for public policy. Read full bio
Justin H. Kirkland Justin H. Kirkland is a professor of politics and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Kirkland specializes in American politics, legislative politics, and subnational politics. His research focuses on understanding the relationship between public opinion and legislative behavior, institutional rules and legislative outcomes, and methods for analyzing legislative choices. Read full bio
Gabrielle Adams Gabrielle Adams is an associate professor of public policy and business administration at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and in the Darden School of Business’s Leadership and Organizational Behavior area. Adams studies the processes and dynamics that give rise to ‘good’ decisions, policies and conditions in organizations. Read full bio
Benjamin Converse Benjamin Converse is an associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Department of Psychology. His research focuses on motivation, social judgment, problem solving and decision making. He teaches courses related to leadership and negotiations. Read full bio
Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and associate director of EdPolicyWorks, a collaboration between the School of Education and Human Development and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her research focuses on early childhood education policy and efforts to improve early childhood education at scale, particularly policies aimed at supporting the early childhood education workforce. Read full bio
Decentralization and Pollution Spillovers: Evidence from the Re-Drawing of County Borders in Brazil Research
Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement.
Faculty Spotlight: The Social Innovator News Batten professor Molly Lipscomb has a creative solution to a public sanitation crisis—and a new vision for the center that’s helping to address it.
Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States Research Particulate air pollution in the contiguous United States has decreased considerably over recent decades, but where exactly has that progress been made? Batten's Jay Shimshack and his co-authors dive in.
Costly Sanctions and the Treatment of Frequent Violators in Regulatory Settings Research Regulators typically treat frequent violators more harshly. When does such harsh treatment maximize overall compliance?
Batten Showcase 2022: Environmental Inequality and Public Policy ft. Jay Shimshack News In this lecture, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Jay Shimshack, probes the concept of environmental inequality - how it both shapes and is shaped by public policy.
Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement.
The “Equal-Opportunity Jerk” Defense: Rudeness Can Obfuscate Gender Bias Research In this research, we identified a barrier that makes sexism hard to recognize: rudeness toward men. We found that observers judge a sexist perpetrator as less sexist if he is rude toward men.
Anger Damns the Innocent Research False accusations permeate social life—from the mundane blaming of other people to more serious accusations of infidelity and workplace wrongdoing. Importantly, false accusations can have grave consequences, including broken relationships, job loss, and reputational damage. In this article, we document an equally pernicious phenomenon—the misuse of anger as a cue to predict whether a suspect has been falsely accused.
Finding a Seat at the Interdisciplinary Research Table News UVA Batten hosted the “Annual Behavioral Science Across Grounds Conference” earlier this month, bringing some of the brightest minds of UVA’s research community to Garrett Hall to exchange ideas, interests, and insights. Associate professor Ben Converse gave the keynote.
Meeting Overload Is a Fixable Problem News Batten School professor Gabe Adams spoke with American Talk about the benefits of adopting a subtraction mindset and how to get it done.
Better Sharing of “Eco-Innovations” Can Combat Rising Climate Despair Research Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, along with Batten post-doc Maura Austin and other UVA researchers, have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized.
People systematically overlook subtractive changes Research A series of problem-solving experiments reveal that people are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even when removing features is more efficient.
Finding a Seat at the Interdisciplinary Research Table News UVA Batten hosted the “Annual Behavioral Science Across Grounds Conference” earlier this month, bringing some of the brightest minds of UVA’s research community to Garrett Hall to exchange ideas, interests, and insights. Associate professor Ben Converse gave the keynote.
New Research: Sharing "Eco-Innovations" Can Ease Climate Despair News Climate despair is emerging as a psychosocial threat. Ben Converse, associate professor of public policy and psychology at the Batten School, and other UVA researchers have found a potential source of hope that is underutilized.
Hard-to-staff centers: Exploring center-level variation in the persistence of child care teacher turnover Research High rates of teacher turnover in child care settings have negative implications for young children's learning experiences and for efforts to improve child care quality. Prior research has explored the prevalence and predictors of turnover at the individual teacher level, but less is known about turnover at the center level––specifically, how turnover varies across child care centers or whether staffing challenges persist year after year for some centers. This study tracks annual turnover rates for all publicly funded child care centers that were continuously operating in Louisiana from the 2015-16 to 2018-19 school years.
Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research
Bassok Wins Award to Study Childcare Access News UVA Batten Professor Daphna Bassok and her team were awarded a $1.2 million federal grant for a new project to accurately measure the number and quality of childcare options in communities across Virginia – a critical first step towards improving childcare access.
UVA | Batten Faculty Excellence Award Winners News Each year, Batten’s Executive Committee selects the Batten Faculty Awards Winners in four areas of review -- research, teaching, service and engagement -- in recognition for the faculty members’ contributions throughout the previous year. We congratulate this year's winners: Ashley Jardina, Andy Pennock, Dan Player and Daphna Bassok.