Admissions & Aid Applying to Batten Admissions Blog Posts Tagged with News Lauren Shepherd 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 More Batten Publication, Staff, Event, News, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop, Dean’s Office Elinor Tappé Elinor (Ellie) 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, Ellie 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 More Staff, Event, News, Development Michael Mallory Michael Mallory is President of the Ron Brown Scholar Fund and Executive Director of the Ron Brown Scholar Program. In these roles, Mallory demonstrates a profound commitment to increasing educational opportunities for young people. Since 1996 he has been instrumental in shaping a distinguished program named in honor of Ron Brown, former Secretary of Commerce. This program not only awards $40,000 college scholarships to academically talented African American students, but also creates a life-long network of outstanding black leaders committed to community and national service. Read More Board, Foundation Board, Event, News Russell Libby Russell Libby is Chairman of the Board of Directors at HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HFFG), a leading food distributor to Asian restaurants across the Southeast, Pacific and Mountain West regions of the United States. Libby has nearly 30 years of comprehensive global experience in mergers and acquisitions, strategy, business development, international business, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility. From 2007 to 2019, he held numerous leadership positions at Sysco Corp. and most recently served as the company’s executive vice president and corporate secretary. Read More Board, Foundation Board, News Jennifer Ludovici Jennifer Ludovici is the NSPC Director of Operations & Research Initiatives. She has over 18 years of experience in higher education administration in both the public and private sector. In her role at the NSPC, she focuses on faculty research collaboration, project coordination and program development as well as general operations and communications. Jennifer holds a post-graduate certificate in project management from UVA, and a BA/MEd in history and education from James Madison University. Read More Batten Publication, Staff, Event, News, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop, National Security Policy Center, National Security Policy Center Colin Achilles 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. Read More Batten Publication, Center for Effective Lawmaking, Staff, Event, News, Center for Effective Lawmaking, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop William Mark Outten Mark was most recently the Director of Technology for the Orange County Public Schools in Orange, VA, has over 20 years of education-related technology leadership and management experience, worked in private industry for a Hewitt Associates, and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He brings a wealth of strategic and practical education technology experience to Batten. Read More Batten Publication, Staff, Event, News, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop, Information Technology John Robinson John Robinson is the NSPC’s Director of Academic Programs. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on national security, including Innovating for Defense, an experiential course that pairs student teams with sponsors from the Department of Defense (DoD) to solve real-world national security problems. His research interests include international security and naval affairs. John holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Virginia, and a M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College. Read More Batten Publication, Staff, Event, News, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop, National Security Policy Center, National Security Policy Center Sofya Olenicheva Sofya Olenicheva currently serves as a Policy Advisor at the Zero Emission Transportation Association, a federal coalition advocating for transportation electrification, and Pioneer Public Affairs, a climate- and renewable energy-focused lobbying firm. Sofya’s professional policy experience began at Batten with an assignment to conduct research for the Virginia gubernatorial transition team. Later, she worked as a Program Assistant at the Community Climate Collaborative, a nonprofit committed to facilitating environmental policy development in local government and encouraging residents to integrate sustainable solutions into their lifestyle. At UVA, Sofya earned a Bachelor of Arts with Highest Distinction in Public Policy and Global Environments & Sustainability. Read More Batten Alumni Advisory Board, Batten Publication, Board, Event, News, Research, Research Speaker, Workshop Matt Gillam Matt Gillam is from Long Island, NY and a 2021 graduate of the BA program. He has since joined Teach For America and is teaching first grade at Miner Elementary School in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC. While teaching, he is pursuing a MSEd from Johns Hopkins University. While at UVA, he served as Batten Undergraduate Council President, co-Director of UVA's Camp Kesem chapter and Chair of UVA's Hillel Jewish Leadership Council. 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