Faculty & Staff Directory

Brian Ford

Brian
Ford

Senior HR Business Partner

As an HR leader with 20 years experience, Brian Ford currently is the Sr. HR Partner for the Batten School and McIntire School of Commerce. Prior to UVA, he led the Employee Experience function for the eastern US region at VMLY&R. In this capacity, he and his team drive culture, talent management and the overall employee experience for offices such as New York, Atlanta & Miami. Prior to VMLY&R, Brian was Chief People Officer at Fusion Media Group and had sr. leadership roles at Ogilvy, LG Electronics and Mercedes-Benz USA.

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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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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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Leora Friedberg

Leora
Friedberg

Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy; Chair, Department of Economics
Monroe 257 (appointment only)

Leora Friedberg is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the Batten School and an associate professor and Vice Chair at UVA's Department of Economics. Her focus is on labor economics, including research on social security, aging and retirement economic impacts.

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Carey

Carey
Reinicke

Assistant Director of Grants and Contracts

Carey Reinicke is the Assistant Director of Grants and Contracts within the Batten Finance unit, focusing on the management of the school’s sponsored awards and related processes.

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Margaret Foster Riley

Margaret Foster
Riley

Professor of Law and Public Policy
580 Massie Road, Room WB347

Margaret Foster Riley is a professor of law and public policy at the Batten School, a professor of law at UVA's School of Law and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Riley has written and presented extensively about biomedical research, genetics, reproductive technologies, stem cell research, animal biotechnology, health disparities and chronic disease. She serves as chair of UVA’s Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee and as legal advisor to the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board, which is responsible for reviewing all human subject research at UVA involving medically invasive procedures.

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Kimberly Jenkins Robinson

Kimberly Jenkins
Robinson

Professor of Law, Education and Public Policy

Kimberly Jenkins Robinson is a professor of law, education and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Robinson is a national expert who speaks domestically and internationally about educational equity, equal educational opportunity, civil rights and the federal role in education. Her work proposes innovative legal and policy solutions to ensure that all children receive equal access to an excellent education.

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Gerard Robinson

Gerard
Robinson

Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Law
Garrett Hall L031

As of fall 2023, Gerard Robinson is a professor of practice in public policy and law at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the School of Law at the University of Virginia. As a Fellow of Practice at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, Robinson has written about K-12 and higher education, public policy, economic mobility, after-school programs, and race. Robinson will teach on education, prisons, and public policy.

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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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Jill Rockwell

Jill
Rockwell

Senior Assistant Dean for Student and Career Services

Jill oversees the administrative units of student affairs, and career services, working with the other members of the student services team to strengthen students’ co-curricular and career-related experiences at the Batten School.

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Christopher Ruhm

Christopher
J.
Ruhm

Professor of Public Policy and Economics

Christopher J. Ruhm is a professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Ruhm’s recent research has focused on the role of government policies in helping parents with young children balance the competing needs of work and family life, and on examining how various aspects of health are produced – including the growth and sources of drug poisoning deaths in the United States, the rise in obesity and the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and health.

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