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UVA Batten, under the guidance of Chief Innovation Officer Christine Mahoney, will facilitate a broad range of economic development and environmental resilience projects in Appalachia through a recently announced federal grant for almost $20 million. The funding will bolster the ongoing work of local governments, universities and non-profits on initiatives including childcare centers, healthy housing, community centers, telehealth hubs, river stewardship and more in multiple localities in Southwest Virginia.

Batten students and staff joined the director of the Federal Executive Institute, Michael Shonrock, on Monday for the first Batten Hour to kick-off the Spring semester. A key takeaway he shared was that a chief trait of values-based leaders is that they are nice to others.

Meet Grace Makin, MPP ‘25 and community engagement chair of the Batten Graduate Council. She leads efforts to plan monthly service opportunities for all Batten students with local organizations, including last semester's projects with Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Club.

Meet Kiara Rogers, BA '19, who was among the first full graduating class of UVA’s Blue Ridge Scholars. After receiving a degree from Columbia Law School, she’s now an associate at Williams & Connolly in New York City. She was recently featured in the StoryBooth video series by UVA’s Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

A natural disaster in Taiwan quickly escalates into an international crisis, bringing the world to the brink of war. This was the scenario given by Associate Professor Alexander Bick to his class, “Strategic Decision-Making" — one example of the experiential learning opportunities offered to our students to prepare them to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

Phil Potter's leadership, knowledge of the intelligence world and commitment to public service, including as founder of UVA Batten’s National Security Policy Center, has culminated in his appointment as the inaugural director of the newly launched National Security Data and Policy Institute, a project of UVA and the Department of Defense.

Two recent UVA Batten graduates had a rare opportunity last summer to support one of the country’s leading organizations working on global hunger. Sadie Rogerson and Emma Nardone were selected to participate — with full funding — in a pilot of the UVA Batten Humanitarian Collaborative Fellowship program.

Meet Rodney Rhodes, BA ‘23. While at Batten, Rhodes was a teaching assistant and Lead Batten Ambassador. He also participated in UVA Equity Center’s program as a career counselor for underrepresented youth in the local community. He’s currently an associate at the Public Service Leadership Institute.

Eddie Bocanegra with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Nancy La Vigne of the National Institute of Justice of the United States joined Assistant Professor Kyle S.H. Dobson for a panel discussion about policy solutions to gun violence.

Dean Ian Solomon talks with award-winning film producer and director Nicholas Ma about his latest work, “Leap of Faith," exploring whether we can disagree and still belong to each other in a divided world.

For a very special Batten Hour this week, speakers with two organizations working with veterans, active duty service members and their families shared insights about how the current elections system is broken and how a variety of fixes can lead to more accountability of elected leaders, and a stronger democracy for all.

UVA Batten Associate Professor Ashley Jardina joined several other UVA political experts on a panel this morning at Garrett Hall for a post-election analysis. The event was co-hosted by Batten, the Karsh Institute of Democracy and the Miller Center, and was moderated by Batten Dean Ian H. Solomon.