Dana Laurens most recently served as National Deputy Director for Advocacy, Policy Engagement & Partnerships at Education Reform Now, a national think-tank in Washington, DC, where she lobbied federal lawmakers to advance progressive policies that maximize educational opportunities for all students. 

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. 

Claire Oto is a policy researcher and writer at the NSPC. She also coordinates the Center’s internship program. Prior to joining Batten, she was a communications specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy.  Claire earned an M.P.P in Space and National Security from George Washington University and holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California San Diego.

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. 

Lyangela Gutierrez is a postdoctoral research associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Gutierrez researches diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations by identifying and addressing factors that impact racial and gender equity in organizations.

As of Fall 2023, Gerald Higginbotham is an assistant professor of public policy 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. 

Philip N. Jefferson took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 23, 2022, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2036. Most recently, Dr. Jefferson was Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Faculty, and the Paul B. Freeland Professor of Economics at Davidson College. Before then, he served as chair of the Department of Economics at Swarthmore College, where he was the Centennial Professor of Economics. Prior to this position, Dr. Jefferson was an economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. His other past roles include being President of the National Economic Association. He also served on the Vassar College Board of Trustees and the Board of Advisors of the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Clay Lowery is Executive Vice President at the Institute of International Finance, where he oversees the divisions that focus on sustainable finance, digital finance, financial regulation, sovereign debt analysis, and macroeconomics. Prior to this position, he had been the Managing Director and co-founder of Rock Creek Global Advisors – an international economic consultancy, and served in a Senate-confirmed post as Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Malcolm Stewart is a 2018 graduate of the Batten BA program, a current MBA student UVA’s Darden School of Business, and a former Product Manager for Makena Capital Management in Menlo Park, California.