Faculty & Staff Directory

Chris 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.

Read full bio
James Savage

James
Savage

Professor of Politics and Public Policy

James D. Savage is a professor of politics and public policy at the Batten School and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. His research and teaching focus on comparative budgetary, fiscal, and macroeconomic policy, with an emphasis on the United States, the European Union, Iraq and Japan. He is particularly interested in the development of macrobudgetary rules, procedures, and institutions in these countries, and how they influence fiscal outcomes.

Read full bio
Abigail Scholer

Abigail
Scholer

Batten Family Bicentennial Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Public Policy and Psychology
Garrett Hall

Abigail Scholer is Batten Family Bicentennial Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy and professor of public policy and psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Scholer studies fundamental and basic processes related to goal pursuit, decision-making, social regulation, motivated social cognition, and behavior change, with an aim for understanding how these basic processes can be leveraged to address societal challenges and improve people’s lives.

Read full bio
Beth Schueler

Beth
Schueler

Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy

Beth Schueler is an associate professor of education and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Schueler studies education policy, politics, and inequality with a focus on efforts to improve low-performing K-12 schools and districts.

Read full bio
Eric Scorsone

Eric
Scorsone

Executive Director, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service; Associate Professor of Public Policy by Courtesy
2400 Old Ivy Road

Eric Scorsone is Executive Director of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and Associate Professor of Public Policy by Courtesy in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.  Scorsone has over 25 years of public service in academic settings, as well as many years’ experience in state and local government.  He has expertise in state and local public finance and administration and regional economics. 

Read full bio
Lauren Shepherd

Lauren
Shepherd

Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives

Lauren Shepherd joined Batten in 2022, coming from Teach For America where she served as Managing Director, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of Executive Director Learning. Prior to that, she served as the Chief of Staff to the TFA Bay Area Executive Director and as Managing Director of Teacher Onboarding Strategy. Originally trained as a journalist, she has professional experience as a writer and reporter as well as many years involved in strategic and operational planning, project management, partnerships, and talent development. 

Read full bio
Jay Shimshack

Jay
Shimshack

Professor of Public Policy and Economics

Jay Shimshack is a professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Shimshack's research focuses on environmental regulation, environmental economics, corporate social behavior, and applied microeconomics for public policy. 

Read full bio
William Shobe

William
Shobe

Research Professor Emeritus of Public Policy

William Shobe is research professor of public policy at the Batten School and the Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Shobe's current research includes emission market and auction design, environmental federalism, improved economic modeling of Virginia’s economy, state economic development incentives and state economic forecasting.

Read full bio
Andrew Simon

Andrew
Simon

Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Garrett Hall

Andrew Simon is an assistant professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He is a public finance economist who studies the incidence of state and local public policies across individuals and geography. His current research focuses on higher education finance, such as the causes and consequence of state divestment in public colleges, as well as taxation, and employment policy. 

Read full bio
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.

Read full bio
ian headshot 2024

Ian
H.
Solomon

Dean and Professor of Practice in Public Policy
Garrett Hall

Ian H. Solomon is dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he leads a multidisciplinary faculty in creating new knowledge and developing leaders who can solve humanity’s greatest policy challenges. Trained as a lawyer, Solomon is a devoted student and teacher of both negotiation and conflict resolution.

Read full bio
Allan Stam

Allan
Stam

University Professor of Public Policy and Politics

Allan C. Stam is a University Professor of public policy and politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. His research focuses on the dynamics of armed conflict between and within states. Stam has also worked on several survey-based projects including surveys conducted in Russia, Rwanda, India and the United States.

Read full bio
Elinor Tappe

Elinor (Ellie)
Tappé

Executive Director of Strategic Advancement

Elinor Tappé serves as Executive Director of Strategic Advancement where she helps shape and realize the strategic objectives of the Batten School. With a 25-year history in strategic planning and development, Elinor has held a variety of leadership roles in the corporate sector, as well as higher education and nonprofit. Her experience in philanthropy spans more than a decade and includes UC Berkeley, Larkin Street Youth Services and Urban Teachers

Read full bio
Sebastian Tello Trillo

Sebastian
Tello Trillo

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics

Sebastian Tello Trillo is an associate professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He studies health policy in the U.S and Latin America, with a particular focus on understanding how policies affect individuals’ health behaviors and economic outcomes. 

Read full bio
Melissa Thomas-Hunt

Melissa
Thomas-Hunt

John D. Forbes Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Public Policy

Melissa Thomas-Hunt is a professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the John Forbes Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Thomas-Hunt focuses on leadership, team dynamics, and negotiations and her research studies the factors that unleash, leverage, and amplify the contributions made by individuals, particularly women, underrepresented individuals, and numerical minorities. 

Read full bio
Sophie Trawalter

Sophie
Trawalter

Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology

Sophie Trawalter, Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, studies phenomena related to social diversity, specifically how people navigate intergroup contact and intergroup contexts, with a particular focus on how people develop competencies and learn to thrive in diverse spaces.

Read full bio
Sarah Turner

Sarah
Turner

University Professor of Economics, Education and Public Policy

Sarah Turner is a University Professor of economics, education and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Souder Family Endowed Professor. Much of her research focuses on post-secondary education, where she explores the intersection of education and economics policies.

Read full bio
Craig Volden

Craig
Volden

Professor of Public Policy and Politics; Co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking

Craig Volden is a professor of public policy and politics at the University of Virginia, with appointments in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Department of Politics. He studies the politics of public policy, with a focus on what policy choices arise within legislative institutions and within American federalism. He is founder and co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking.

 

Read full bio
Xiao Wang

Xiao
Wang

Director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic; Assistant Professor of Law and Public Policy

Xiao Wang (MPP '09) is director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and assistant professor of law and public policy at the University of Virginia. Wang worked as a litigator at Williams & Connolly and Wilkinson Stekloff, where he led investigations or litigation on behalf of Mars, Under Armour, and the National Football League. He has led appeals before state courts, federal circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Wang writes about federal courts, constitutional law, and law and religion.

Read full bio
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.

Read full bio
Dr. Cameron Webb

Cameron
Webb

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences, Assistant Professor of Public Policy by Courtesy

Dr. Cameron Webb is an assistant professor of medicine, assistant professor of public health sciences, and director, health policy and equity in the School of Medicine; he is also assistant professor of public policy by courtesy at the University of Virginia. Webb has devoted his career to helping others, as a physician, professor of medicine, advocate for equity in healthcare and, most recently, as senior advisor to the White House Covid-19 response team. 

Read full bio
Michael Williams

Michael
D.
Williams

Associate Professor of Surgery and Public Policy

Michael D. Williams is an associate professor of surgery and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Williams is interested in, among other things, comprehensive, apolitical analysis of current and proposed health policy for citizens and policymakers.

Read full bio
Brian Williams

Brian Williams is a professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Director of the Public Engagement in Governance: Looking, Listening and Learning Laboratory (the PEGLLLLab) at UVA. His research centers on issues related to demographic diversity, local law enforcement, and public governance, with special attention devoted to the co-production of public safety and public order.

Read full bio