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You can join the growing number of alumni and friends who invest now in the University’s future by including UVA as a beneficiary of their wills, charitable trusts, and retirement plans. Gifts like these can offer you and your family significant tax benefits as well as greater financial flexibility in meeting your personal and philanthropic goals.
Through Honor the Future, the largest in University history, concluded in 2025, thanks to thousands of loyal supporters. Its impact on students, faculty, facilities, and research reaches across Charlottesville, Wise County, and Northern Virginia as it continues to advance the school into the third century of service to the commonwealth, nation, and world.
The Batten School is a force for good, dedicated to developing skilled leaders who are bringing about transformational change in their communities and across the globe.
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The Honor the Future Campaign saw the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy secure over $37 million in commitments to drive the strategic priorities of Access, Impact, and Innovation. The campaign also helped the school to grow its undergraduate, graduate, faculty research, and public-facing programming as the school approaches the opening of its third decade on Grounds.
The generosity of Batten donors has established eight endowed undergraduate scholarship awards along with multiple endowment funds to support graduate students in their studies and experiential learning beyond the classroom. The campaign also saw the creation of two permanently endowed Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor positions to honor exceptional teaching, which is at the heart of the Batten faculty culture.
As the Batten School expanded academic programming and the student body, it did so without sacrificing the commitment to intensive, one-to-one career development for students. This includes philanthropic investments supporting internships and fellowships and a redoubled investment in career and alumni services to support a growing student and alumni population.
A hallmark investment blending career skill development with cost of attendance support is the prestigious Tadler Fellowship. Led by UVA’s Chief Innovation Officer Christine Mahoney, this program invites students to learn about the economic conditions, challenges, and opportunities in Appalachia by partnering with community stakeholders to identify opportunities for private capital to address persistent issues in the region. To date, the program has seen 180 students invest nearly 10,000 working hours in the region, generating millions of dollars of economics impact. The Tadler Fellowship has been transformational for Batten students, community partners in Appalachia, and has helped to re-energize the link between UVA’s Charlottesville Grounds and the College at Wise.
The Batten School concluded Honor the Future by announcing its new shared home with the Karsh Institute of Democracy in the University’s Discovery Nexus, slated to open in 2027. As the Batten School continues its growth, this new physical space is essential for maintaining the high academic quality which is the centerpiece of the Batten School.
From everyone at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia—thank you to each and every individual who supported the school as part of the campaign. The investments made during Honor the Future Campaign will pave the way for exceptional citizen-leaders to learn and thrive at Batten for years to come.
Policy for Positive Impact
When Claudia Nunn arrived at UVA, she was no stranger to public policy and service.
Claudia Nunn (Batten ’26)
With a bachelor’s degree in public policy from University of California, Riverside, Nunn had also just served as a California Climate Action Fellow in Los Angeles, which taught her how policy, education, and outreach affect communities. Her experience resulted in her writing a motion that was unanimously passed at City Hall, amending the city’s new municipal composting mandate to prevent passing increased costs of waste collection to renters.
“I have always volunteered from a young age,” Nunn said. “I come from a family of social workers and foster carers, so I grew up around people who emphasized the importance of dedicating your time to others. That message eventually, for me, translated into working with policy because as I grew older, I realized the impact that policy has on everyone.”
The Batten School offered Nunn unique opportunities. She noted the school’s strong alumni network and connection to Washington, D.C., where she met with alumni working in Congress and toured the Capitol.
Those experiences, along with the school’s academic rigor and dedicated faculty have given her confidence and enthusiasm in her work.
“Batten continues to help me to bridge the gap between theory and practice,” Nunn said.
She began applying to the Master’s in Public Policy program but didn’t finish her application when she realized she would need to work for a few years to afford her degree. Then she learned she was being considered for the Hicker Fellowship, designated to recruit students from all 50 states. She is the first fellow for this initiative designed to include graduate students from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
“This scholarship has completely changed my life, I would never have been able to be here without it,” said Nunn. “The experiences, the learning, and the people that I get to meet at Batten are priceless, and that is all thanks to the Hicker Fellowship.”
George and Kathy Hicker, who created the fellowship, welcomed the chance to participate in the cause. “When Kathy and I were introduced to the objective and the young lady—even though I spent four years at a different university—the overall program pointed us to get involved with whomever received the fellowship, who turned out to be Claudia Nunn,” said George Hicker.
Nunn’s dream is to work in some capacity in environmental policy, since that’s always been her passion. “I want to eventually work for the EPA or a local government, creating policy that will positively impact everyone.”
Resources for a Better Life
“Thank you for your investment in the future. Thank you for giving young, passionate people the opportunity to make this world a greater place.”
McKenzie Samuels (Batten ’25)
“I was inspired to attend the University of Virginia because I aim to achieve a better life for myself and my family.”
McKenzie Samuels is a public policy & leadership major from Mount Vernon, New York. A UVA Within Reach Blue Ridge Scholarship made it possible for Samuels to attend UVA, where she said she would receive “the resources and reputation necessary to excel after graduation and would create opportunities for me to grow both as a learner and in my desired field.”
A gift made by Terry Daniels (Col ’66) created the UVA Within Reach Blue Ridge Scholarship to support out-of-state students from middle-income families by helping to alleviate the cost of attending the University.
Samuels cites her student self-governance experience as an important part of her education. She served as president of the Student Organization for Caribbean Awareness where she helped create opportunities for her peers, bringing them together to foster their educational, cultural, and social growth.
Without the scholarship, Samuels doubts she could participate in many student activities or served as president. “I would have had to actively support myself financially throughout my time at school,” said Samuels. “My family may not have been able to afford this education at all.”
Samuels was also a fellow of UVA’s Meriwether Lewis Institute for Citizen Leadership, which offers programs focused on leadership, self-governance, and engagement. She was a peer advisor at the Office of African-American Affairs and a resident advisor. In the summer of 2024 and 2024-25 academic year, she completed a hybrid internship at the advertising firm Publicis Health in New York City.
After graduation, Samuels will pursue her master’s in education degree while simultaneously serving in the Teach for America Corps in New York. She also plans to apply for law school to continue her work to advocate community opportunities.
Jane Batten, wife of founder Frank Batten Sr. (Col ’50), created the school’s first three endowed professorships. Thanks to a match from the University’s Bicentennial Professors Fund, as well as additional contributions from a small group of donors, the gift resulted in the $9 million Batten Family Bicentennial Leadership Professorships Fund. The Batten professors include Eileen Chou, Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy; Abigail Scholer, Batten Family Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy; and Sophie Trawalter, Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy.
Exploring Questions About Decision Making
“I’m intrinsically motivated to understand how people make decisions.”
Eileen Chou Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy
Eileen Chou is a leading scholar on the organizational, social, and psychological forces that regulate behavior, and she investigates how situations can be engineered to reduce individual dishonesty, build trust, foster cooperation, and encourage creativity.
Chou emphasizes leadership in the context of both the organization and the individual. She studies leadership in terms of leading effective organizations and career development for leaders.
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Learning to Thrive
Sophie Trawalter is one of the world’s leading scholars on how identity and context shape individual experiences and how this translates into lessons for organizational leadership and public policy.
Sophie Trawalter Batten Family Bicentennial Teacher-Scholar Leadership Professor of Public Policy. +
Trawalter studies interracial interactions, interpersonal bias, the effects of race and class on disparities and individuals’ sense of place and the impact of differential representations of diversity in organizational settings. Her papers frequently include a student or former student as co-author.Students consistently describe Trawalter as “knowledgeable,” “passionate” and “inclusive.” Students praise her classes, which enable them to engage thoughtfully in difficult conversations about values and bias.
“Professor Trawalter’s contributions in and out of the classroom—and beyond academia—are profound in terms of how leaders think about interracial conflict and exercise leadership for diverse and divided communities,” said Dean Solomon.
Understanding Human Motivation
Abigail Scholer studies the dynamic, complex, and often confounding world of human motivation and self-regulation.
Abigail Scholer Batten Family Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy
What makes us reach for the stars, huddle in a corner, get out of bed, help others, break our diets, save for retirement, follow rules, and color outside the lines?
Scholer takes a social psychological approach to explore how situational and individual factors lead people to both manage and mismanage life’s challenges and opportunities. She studies fundamental and basic processes related to goal pursuit, decision-making, social regulation, motivated social cognition, and behavior change, with an aim for understanding how these basic processes can be leveraged to address societal challenges and improve people’s lives.
In the spring of 2018, Jane Batten, wife of the late Batten Sr., made a $10 million gift in...
Cam Morales is looking forward to shaping the public good in the world of Washington, D.C., policymaking.
Malcolm Brogdon’s latest winning play will support Virginia Men’s Basketball players as they work to achieve their dreams.
Daphna Bassok, Batten Bicentennial Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the School of Education and Human Development.
