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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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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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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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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Gerald Higginbotham

Gerald
Higginbotham

Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Psychology

Gerald Higginbotham is an assistant professor of public policy and psychology 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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Justin Kirkland

Justin
H.
Kirkland

Professor of Politics and Public Policy
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
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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Amy Meli

Amy
D.
Meli

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Effective Lawmaking
Garrett Hall L028

Amy Meli is a postdoctoral research associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, working with the Center for Effective Lawmaking. Her research centers around interest groups and the way they influence the political system.

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Gerald Warburg

Gerald
Warburg

Professor of Practice in Public Policy

Gerry Warburg is a professor of practice in public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Prior to Batten, he worked with Congress for several decades, serving as a legislative assistant to members of leadership in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

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