Faculty & Staff Directory

Gabrielle Adams

Gabrielle
Adams

Associate Professor of Public Policy, Business Administration, and Psychology
Garrett Hall L004C

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.

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Maura Austin

Maura
Austin

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Maura Austin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She studies person perception, motivation, social judgment and decision making, and moral character judgment. 

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Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi

Jazmin
Brown-Iannuzzi

Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Policy

Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi is an associate professor of psychology and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Brown-Iannuzzi's research seeks to understand why social group disparities may persist and, in some cases, grow.

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Eileen Chou

Eileen
Chou

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Associate Professor of Public Policy

Eileen Chou, associate dean for academic affairs and Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, researches the organizational, social, and psychological forces that shape individual and group behavior in organizational settings.

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Michele Claiborn

Michele
Claibourn

Assistant Professor of Public Policy

Michele Claibourn is an assistant professor of public policy at the Batten School and Director of Equitable Analysis for The Equity Center at UVA.  Claibourn leads the Center’s community-engaged data science work in support of a more equitable and just region. She has directed or supervised multiple community-based research projects in the Charlottesville community, including racial equity studies for the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless.

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Benjamin Converse

Benjamin
Converse

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Psychology

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.

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Kevin Cope

Kevin
Cope

Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy

Kevin Cope is an associate professor of law and public policy at the Batten School and an associate professor of law at UVA's School of Law. Cope’s research focuses on the measurement of legal and political phenomena. Substantively, he is most interested in the law and politics of international institutions, migration, and relationships between domestic institutional structure and international behavior. He is a faculty affiliate at the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics.

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Galen Fountain

Galen Fountain is a lecturer at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Previously, he served for nearly two decades as Clerk of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies and prior to that as Counsel to the Senate Committee on Small Business. 

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Lyangela Gutierrez

Lyangela
Gutierrez

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Lyangela Gutierrez is a postdoctoral research associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Gutierrez researches diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations by identifying and addressing factors that impact racial and gender equity in organizations.

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Harry Harding

Harry
Harding

University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Garrett Hall L027

Harry Harding is university professor emeritus and professor emeritus of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, a senior fellow in the Miller Center of Public Affairs at UVA, and Adjunct Chair Professor in the College of Social Science at National Chengchi University in Taipei, where he holds a Yushan Scholarship. Harding is a specialist on Asia and U.S. - Asian relations.

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Gerald Higginbotham

Gerald
Higginbotham

Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Garrett Hall 105

As of Fall 2023, Gerald Higginbotham is an assistant professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Utilizing social and cultural psychological insights, Higginbotham researches the imprint of history on people’s modern social perceptions and policy attitudes, and the psychological underpinnings of how people perceive history and its consequences. 

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John Holbein

John
Holbein

Associate Professor of Public Policy, Politics, and Education; Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellow
Garrett Hall 111

John Holbein is an associate professor of public policy, politics, and education at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Holbein studies political participation, political inequality, democratic accountability, political representation, and education policy.

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Ashley Jardina

Ashley
Jardina

Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Garrett Hall 106

As of Fall 2023, Ashley Jardina is an assistant professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Jardina’s research focuses on racial attitudes, racial conflict, and the way in which group identities influence political preferences in the United States.

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Peter Johannessen

Peter
Johannessen

Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Garrett Hall L038

Peter Johannessen is an assistant professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Johannessen’s research explores how popular participation shapes the local policy-making process, including projects that focus on local electoral responsiveness and the design of participatory governance institutions in Brazil.

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Justin Kirkland

Justin
H.
Kirkland

Professor of Politics and Public Policy
S162 Gibson Hall

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.

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Jennifer Lawless

Jennifer
Lawless

Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics and Professor of Public Policy
264 Gibson Hall

Jennifer L. Lawless is the Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics and professor of public policy at the University of Virginia and at the Batten School. Lawless is also a Senior Fellow at UVA's Miller Center. Her research focuses on political ambition, campaigns and elections, and media and politics.

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David Leblang

David
Leblang

Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics and Public Policy

David Leblang is a professor of public policy at the Batten School, the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, and the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at UVA's Miller Center. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets.

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Christine Mahoney

Christine
Mahoney

Professor of Public Policy and Politics
Garrett Hall L020C

Christine Mahoney is a professor of public policy and politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.  She studies social justice advocacy, activism and direct action through social entrepreneurship.

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Paul Martin

Paul
S.
Martin

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Garrett Hall L037

Paul Martin is an associate professor at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Martin studies how and when political elites respond to the preferences of ordinary people; political participation and advocacy, how and when citizens become involved in the policy process; on the role of mass media; and on the origins and consequences of social capital .

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Andy Pennock

Andrew
S.
Pennock

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Andy Pennock is an associate professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He serves UVA as the faculty director of Batten’s MPP orientation program, on Batten’s curriculum committee, and as an elected member of the Executive Council of the Faculty Senate. Pennock’s academic research examines public policy in the global economy as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning

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Philip Potter

Philip
Potter

Professor of Politics and Public Policy; Founding Director of the National Security Policy Center
S183 Gibson Hall and NSPC, 134 10th St NW

Philip Potter is a professor of politics and Founding Director of the National Security Policy Center at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He is also a University Expert with the National Ground Intelligence Center, US Army INSCOM. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics and the Journal of Global Security Studies and is an Associate Principal Investigator for Time-Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences (TESS). 

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James Savage

James
Savage

Professor of Politics and Public Policy

James D. Savage is a professor of politics and public policy at the Batten School and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. His research and teaching focus on comparative budgetary, fiscal, and macroeconomic policy, with an emphasis on the United States, the European Union, Iraq and Japan. He is particularly interested in the development of macrobudgetary rules, procedures, and institutions in these countries, and how they influence fiscal outcomes.

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Abigail Scholer

Abigail
Scholer

Batten Family Bicentennial Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy
Garrett Hall 107

As of Fall 2023, Abigail Scholer is Batten Family Bicentennial Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Broadly, she researches the dynamic, complex, and often confounding world of human motivation and self-regulation: What makes us reach for the stars, huddle in a corner, get out of bed, help others, break our diets, save for retirement, follow rules, and color outside the lines? Scholer studies fundamental and basic processes related to goal pursuit, decision-making, social regulation, motivated social cognition, and behavior change, with an aim for understanding how these basic processes can be leveraged to address societal challenges and improve people’s lives.

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Todd Sechser

Todd
S.
Sechser

Professor of Politics and Public Policy
S182 Gibson Hall

Todd S. Sechser is a professor of politics and public policy at the Batten School and the Pamela Feinour Edmonds and Franklin S. Edmonds Jr. Discovery Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. Sechser is also a Senior Fellow at UVA's Miller Center. His research interests include coercive diplomacy, emerging technologies, nuclear security and political violence

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Allan Stam

Allan
Stam

University Professor of Public Policy and Politics

Allan C. Stam is a University Professor of public policy and politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. His research focuses on the dynamics of armed conflict between and within states. Stam has also worked on several survey-based projects including surveys conducted in Russia, Rwanda, India and the United States.

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