Faculty & Staff Directory

Colin Achiles

Colin
Achilles

Associate Director, Center for Effective Lawmaking

Colin Achilles is the Associate Director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL), a joint partnership between the Batten School and Vanderbilt University. He is the manager of day-to-day operations at CEL. 

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Shawn Anderson

Shawn
Anderson

Associate Director of Student Services & Community Engagement
Garrett Hall L002B

Shawn Anderson is the Batten School's Associate Director of Student Services & Community Engagement, and is responsible for advising undergraduate and graduate students in their co-curricular and service-related endeavors, as well as organizing school-wide student programming. Anderson is currently working towards a doctorate in Higher Education Administration at UVA, where his key focus is student development.

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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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Natalie Baumeister1

Natalie
Baumeister

Lab Manager, JADE and SoBaD Labs

Natalie Baumeister is the Lab Manager for the Judgments and Decisions Experimental (JADE) Lab and the Social Behavior and Decisions (SoBaD) Lab in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. 

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Xanni Brown

Xanni
Brown

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Xanni Brown is a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Associate in Race, Place, and Equity at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She studies racial and political attitudes in the U.S., with a focus on how people react to increasing diversity in various contexts.

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Anne Carter Mulligan

Anne
Carter Mulligan

Senior Director of Admissions
Garrett Hall 203

Anne Carter Mulligan joined Batten in January 2019 as Director of Undergraduate Admissions. She’s held multiple roles in higher education, most recently as Director of Strategic Initiatives in Enrollment Management at Longwood University, where she led projects designed to enrich the student experience and provide a seamless path from recruitment to graduation.

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Amanda Crombie

Amanda
Crombie

Senior Assistant Dean for Students and Academic Programs
Garrett Hall L054

Amanda Crombie is the Batten School’s Senior Assistant Dean for Students and Academic Programs and is responsible for the operational aspects of our academic programming and overall student experience from matriculation and orientation through graduation.

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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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Alec Davis headshot

Alec
Davis

Lab Manager, CHIP and Motivation Science Labs

Alec Davis is the Lab Manager for the Culture, History, Identity, and Policy Lab and the Social Motivation Lab in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

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Heather Downs

Heather
Downs

Director of Academic Operations

Heather Downs joined Batten in December 2023 as the Director of Academic Operations. She has served UVA Athletics since 2013, most recently as the Executive Director of Student Development.

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Nick Elacqua

Nick
Elacqua

Lab Manager, APPLE and SCABL Labs

Nick Elacqua is the Lab Manager for the Applied Public Policy and Leadership Experiments (APPLE) Lab and the Social Cognition and Behavior Lab (SCABL) in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

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Essence Ellis

Essence
Ellis

Academic Operations Manager

Essence Ellis joined the Batten School in 2024 as the Academic Operations Manager. Essence supports students and faculty by maintaining academic records and providing general programmatic assistance. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Randolph-Macon College and completed her Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School. A native of Charlottesville, she enjoys spending time with her loved ones and traveling when possible.

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Sean Michael Flattery

Sean Michael
Flattery

Assistant Director of Events and Operations

As assistant director of events and operations, Sean Michael supports the Batten School’s mission by ensuring the efficient planning and execution of key events and daily operations. Before joining Batten, he was assistant technical director at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., and previously toured nationally as an actor and deck manager, coordinating performances and technical operations in over 100 venues across 36 states, Toronto and off-Broadway.

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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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regina ford

Regina
Ford

Business Services Specialist

Regina Ford is the Business Services Specialist for the Batten School and supports multiple areas of our Finance and Business Servcies team.  She has extensive knowledge and experience as a fitness professional in health and wellness ranging from management to multi-faceted trainer and instructor. She also has more than 17 years of experience in the trade show industry. 

She earned her bachelor's degree in social work from Shippensburg University with a minor in psychology and art.

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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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george hadijski headshot

George
Hadijski

Program Associate, Center for Effective Lawmaking

George Hadijski is the Senior Program Associate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL), a joint partnership between the Batten School and Vanderbilt University. He is responsible for increasing the use of CEL’s research by lawmakers, their staffs, and their influencers. 

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Sarah Hanks

Sarah
Hanks

Director of Career Services
Garrett L002A

Sarah Hanks is the Director of Career Services for the Frank Batten School. She has more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit capacity building, change management, and crisis recovery.

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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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