Faculty & Staff Directory

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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Pam Cipriano

Pam
Cipriano

Professor of Nursing and Public Policy

Pamela Cipriano is a professor of nursing and public policy at the Batten School. Cipriano served as dean of the UVA School of Nursing and the Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing through July 2022. Cipriano’s more than 40-year career in nursing is marked by a focus on improving the safety and efficiency of care by ensuring a healthy, safe, and supportive work environment and encouraging healthy behaviors to promote well-being.

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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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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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Shelly Smith

Shelly
Smith

Professor of Nursing and Public Policy

Shelly Porter Smith is a professor of nursing and public policy at Batten. Prior to her appointment at UVA, Smith mentored faculty scholars in legislative advocacy, proposal and grant writing, and authoring policy briefs and white paper as a Translational Research Fellow in Residence at VCU in addition to serving as director of nursing graduate programs.  Smith is a long-time preceptor to UVA nurse practitioner master's students, and part of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority’s nursing preceptor incentive program work group.

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