This issue of Batten Reports highlights our collective work toward this goal. It presents updates on cutting-edge research by the Batten faculty. Their efforts form the core of our enduring commitment to build Batten into a catalyst for evidence-based policy research on Grounds.
Leadership and team-building skills have an extraordinary multiplier effect on policy and organizational outcomes. They often are the crucial difference separating success from failure, accounting for when the best policies and practices emerge.
My own work, first in the U.S. military and then as an academic, demonstrates that civil society leaders and security policymakers alike must work as a team to achieve their community’s goals. Those leaders and the strategies they adopt are the most powerful drivers shaping the world around us.
At the heart of my research teams’ work are issues of war and peace, and of advancing community interests in the face of sectarian and ethnic divisions. All of our projects drill deeply into the relevant data while keeping an ear to the ground for pertinent historical evidence.
Looking ahead, three pillars supporting Batten’s evolution are clear: (1) cementing leadership and team-building best practices into our curriculum and policy outreach; (2) establishing Garrett Hall as a national locus of evidence-based policy research; and (3) teaching advanced policy analysis skills to U.Va.’s extraordinary students. These pillars emerge from the school’s remarkable foundation built under our founding dean, Harry Harding. Together with pioneering students and an outstanding young faculty, we have a solid core with which to launch the next phase of our development.
What will the near future bring? We will double down on our commitment to teaching practical leadership and team-building skills. We will continue to recruit top-notch scholars and practitioners in economics, psychology and political science. We will complete the job of scaling up our MPP and BA programs to serve more than 300 scholar-students. We will invest heavily in interdisciplinary projects on leadership and teamwork. Across Grounds, we will collaborate with practitioners and scholars alike to advance our understanding of public policy best practices. Finally, we will expand our engagement in Richmond and Washington to heighten our impact on the national policymaking conversation.
Our goal is clear: to realize the Batten family’s vision of building the best school of leadership and policy analysis in the nation to shape our shared future. I thank each of you in advance for your commitment, your support and your engagement.