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. 

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.

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.   

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.

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.

Hannah Semmes is a consultant at Guidehouse State & Local Government. Prior to that, she was a consultant in the private sector for Salt Flats (née Optimity Advisors). She is an alumna of the State Department’s Critical Language Scholar in Indonesian, and previously worked as intern at the World Wildlife Fund, in the Office of Congressman Beyer (VA-08), and various political campaigns. At UVA, she served as Co-Captain of Women's Club Soccer. As a BAAB member, it is her goal to support and grow Batten’s entrepreneurial community.

Shannon Valentine served as Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation during Governor Ralph Northam’s administration (2018 to 2022), overseeing a $6 billion transportation system that includes the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Port of Virginia, Virginia Space Authority, Department of Aviation, Virginia Department of Transportation, and Department of Motor Vehicles. 

George Foresman has over three decades of leadership experience in government and business. While serving as Virginia’s homeland security secretary, Foresman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

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. 

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.