Dan Laufer (Col ’06) and Ed Festa (Col ’02, Darden ’10) shared stories and advice from their respective careers in emerging technologies during last week’s Batten Expert Chats.

The public session of the University’s Racial Equity Task Force featuring Dean Solomon occurred virtually Friday, over one month after a group of Black student activists and the Black Student Alliance sent separate list of demands to the task force. 

Last week, Annie Rorem (MPP ‘13) shared a new vision for a country of people inspired to serve the public good.

“We’re at the intersection of past and present—and we're teetering a bit,” Batten professor Brian N. Williams told an online audience last week. “Evolution or revolution? Reform or riot? Progress or more protests? Should we defund and divest or deconstruct and reconstruct?”

Earlier this week Governor Northam of Virginia declared June 19 as a day to reflect on the meaning of Juneteenth. The University of Virginia and Batten School also honor this day.

“It was a huge wake-up call for me,” Ian Solomon told me. “It’s too easy to put the blame on individuals and not recognize what’s below the surface. We put all the blame on a person’s failings, and they do have failings. But my brother did not fail to be a human being, right? It’s easy to dehumanize people for their errors, for their mistakes, for their addictions, for their pasts.”

For the latest edition of Batten’s Expert Chat Series, Dean Ian Solomon led the Batten community in a discussion of the University’s fight against racism and inequity.

Malcolm Brogdon (MPP '16) had a megaphone in his hand and family history on his mind. It was May 30 in his native Atlanta, and hundreds were listening to Brogdon address the fury that had swept America since the death of George Floyd.

Brendan Boler is an assistant professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Boler specializes in management consulting, high-performance coaching, and talent assessment and selection. He has extensive experience within the fields of management consulting and banking, having worked at Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. 

On June 6, Dean Solomon appeared on CBC Radio One’s “Day 6” program to discuss his recent essay on the murder of George Floyd, how his brother died in 2011 while in police custody, his hopes for positive action, and more.