Faculty & Staff Directory

Leah Daniel is Batten’s Salesforce Manager. Prior to joining Batten, Leah was Senior Financial Analyst and Salesforce Administrator at UVA School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. She brings years of database management experience to Batten from her role as database manager at both the Darden School Foundation (1997-2003) and the UVA Law School Foundation (2004-2017). Leah holds a B.S. from the University of South Carolina.

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George Foresman

George
Foresman

NSPC Executive Director & Senior Advisor

George Foresman has over three decades of leadership experience in government and business. While serving as Virginia’s homeland security secretary, Foresman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

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Ben Hartless

Ben
Hartless

Assistant Director of Information Technology
Garrett Hall L029

Ben Hartless is the assistant director of information technology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Ben was born and raised an hour away in Lexington, Virginia where he worked at Washington and Lee University for thirteen years as a Technology Support Specialist. He also worked seven years at the Washington and Lee School of Law as the Director of Information Technology before beginning his new career at the Frank Batten School in Spring of 2020.

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Jennifer Ludovici

Jennifer
Ludovici

Director of Operations for National Security Initiatives

Jennifer Ludovici is the Director of Operations for National Security Initiatives. She has over 18 years of experience in higher education administration in both the public and private sector. In her role at the NSPC, she focuses on faculty research collaboration, project coordination and program development as well as general operations and communications. Jennifer holds a post-graduate certificate in project management from UVA, and a BA/MEd in history and education from James Madison University.

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Mark Outten

Mark
Outten

Director of Information Technology and School Systems
Garrett Hall L015

Mark was most recently the Director of Technology for the Orange County Public Schools in Orange, VA, has over 20 years of education-related technology leadership and management experience, worked in private industry for a Hewitt Associates, and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He brings a wealth of strategic and practical education technology experience to Batten.

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Phil Potter

Philip
Potter

Professor of Politics and Public Policy; Founding Director of the National Security Policy Center
Gibson Hall and NSPC

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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john robinson

John
Robinson

NSPC Director of Academic Programs

John Robinson is the NSPC’s Director of Academic Programs. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on national security, including Innovating for Defense, an experiential course that pairs student teams with sponsors from the Department of Defense (DoD) to solve real-world national security problems. His research interests include international security and naval affairs.

John holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Virginia, and a M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College.   

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