Positive O Sdisrup- Tion O Ii Iu

0 1 YEARS OF I I POSITIVEO S I DISRUP-O U TION A B YEARS10 A DECADE OF BUILDING LEADERS 02 Dean Stam on Where We’ve Been 03 and Where We’re Going Inspiring Sayings, Inspiring Stats PAST 04 05 THE VISION Frank Batten Sr.’s TO LEAD Vision to Forge the Next Generation of Leaders PRESENT 10 12 14 18 THE COURAGE Jill Rockwell Challenging A Photo Essay: TO QUESTION on “Batten Assumptions Drawing Idealism” in the Global Enlightened and Policy Center Ethical Leaders FUTURE 24 25 28 30 THE PURPOSE Dean Stam Equipped to Gerry Warburg TO SERVE on the Power Lead: A Current on Batten’s of Positive Student and Growing Disruption Alum Reflect Legacy 32 34 38 40 Batten Firsts and Generosity Fueling Alumni on A Final Word From the Latest News Public Service Defining Moments Frank Batten Sr. WELCOME A DECADE OF BUILDING LEADERS If you looked at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at its beginning, a decade ago, you would have seen a DEAN ALLAN STAM much different place. When the doors opened, we had two full-time faculty members, three staff and two dozen brave students for our new master’s program. Back then, we had no undergraduate program at all. From this modest beginning, the This special edition of Batten School has grown more than tenfold. Reports celebrates the first decade of Many things have changed, but the Batten School by focusing on three choosing not to continue that trend what’s more important are the things key attributes: indefinitely. Recruiting a constant- that have remained. Visitors sense • the vision to lead, characterized ly growing student population is immediately that this is a place for by our founding benefactor, Frank incompatible with our commitment to deep thinking and careful questions, Batten Sr.; building depth. not partisan rhetoric. Batten is a • the courage to question, through My own commitment to this idea great place to build bridges across our innovative curricula and five draws from my past experiences as disciplines, a place to collaborate research centers; and a member of the U.S. Army Special with other like-minded colleagues • the purpose to serve, giving our Forces. If our people are good enough, focused on outcomes and execution, students the skills to make a skilled enough and trained enough, a place where we get things done. Our lasting difference. we don’t need very many of them to classrooms aim for synthesis of both Even though the Batten School has have an extraordinary impact on our theory and practice in the arena of po- enjoyed strong numeric growth in whole society. That’s our model for the litical and organizational leadership. its first decade, we are strategically Batten School. 2 10 YEARS OF POSITIVE DISRUPTION KEY FIGURES LEADERSHIP HAS TO BE EVIDENT IN TOUGH TIMES RESEARCH AND GOOD TIMES.” 5 CENTERS — ERIC CANTOR, former U.S. House Majority Leader “Above all, we are fulfilling two of Mr. Jefferson’s central missions for his university: to inspire and 632 prepare the nation’s future civic leaders, and to ALUMNI FOR THE MPP AND BA PROGRAMS produce useful knowledge for society.” TO DATE —FORMER DEAN HARRY HARDING “Leadership and team- “LEADERS building skills have an 1,10 0 SHOULD BE extraordinary multiplier NON-MAJORS PREPARED TO effect on policy and TAKE CLASSES AT BATTEN GET IN TROUBLE. organizational outcomes. BE BOLD, BE They often are the COURAGEOUS. crucial difference “I WANT BE A HEADLIGHT, separating success from TO TRAIN NOT A LEADERS WHO TAILLIGHT.” failure, accounting for MAKE POLICY when the best policies BASED ON —CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS COMPASSION and practices emerge. AND EMPATHY, NOT JUST ON —DEAN ALLAN STAM BUDGETARY LEVELS.” 78,671 — PROFESSOR JEANINE VIEWERS OF THE COUNTRY’S 1ST BRAITHWAITE PUBLIC POLICY MOOC 10 YEARS OF POSITIVE DISRUPTION 3 PAST / H TTHE VISIONI O TOO LEADL D HOW ONE MAN’S BY RON LONDEN INSPIRATION BECAME A PLACE TO FORGE THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS 4 YEARS10 LEADING FROM THE START AT COMMENCEMENT exercises in May 2009, David Breneman marched a group of 25 students down the Lawn to receive their diplomas as the initial graduating class of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy—the first new school at the University of Virginia in more than five decades. “That first class was pretty gutsy,” says Breneman, who served as the initial director of the public policy program for the School. “At the time they signed 5 THE VISION TO LEAD Frank Batten Sr. was an enlightened business executive committed to teaching leadership. up, we were a small program with just a couple of full-time faculty.” Stepping into a brand-new academic program at a university as prestigious as UVA requires the courage to embrace uncertainty and to question old approaches in new ways. In other words, it requires leadership. FRANK BATTEN’S MARK BY 2006, efforts were underway to craft a new public policy program with the hope of starting a new school. “That was really a pipe dream,” Breneman says. “Starting a new school would take millions of dollars and nobody saw where that was coming from.” The proposal caught the eye of John “Dubby” Wynne, member of the UVA Board of Visitors and executive $100 of Landmark Media Enterprises. He thought the idea might interest Land- mark’s founder, Frank Batten Sr. MILLION The planning process for the The initial endowment from School took about four months of Frank Batten Sr., the single largest gift in UVA’s history. intense effort for a tight group of people working with Wynne before it could be taken to Batten. 6 10 YEARS OF POSITIVE DISRUPTION THE VISION TO LEAD “We sweated a lot of blood doing it,” says Breneman, who during the process was serving his final year as dean of the Curry School of Edu- cation at UVA. “We did numerous versions, down to the level of the timing of clerical staff hires, enroll- 25 ment projections, the phasing-in of The number of students faculty. When we were satisfied, we in the very first RETROSPECT took the plan to Frank Batten.” graduating class. John In the end, the plan resulted in an Casteen III endowment of $100 million from Then: President, Batten, the single largest gift in UVA’s University of Virginia history. As CEO of Landmark, Batten had I grew up in Portsmouth. newspapers, as well as founding The built one of the largest privately held The Virginian-Pilot was our Weather Channel in 1982. media companies in the nation— major local newspaper, and “Frank Batten was deeply interest- Frank Batten was one of a publishing the Virginian-Pilot, the ed in leadership,” Breneman says. “At handful of Norfolk business Roanoke Times and other smaller leaders who navigated that Landmark, he said that everyone who region through the major has any kind of leadership role in the issues of my youth—the company should be deeply involved conversion of the econo- in the community and in charitable my from its old maritime organizations. For him, that’s an es- core to what it is today, sential part of being a good citizen.” desegregation of the public schools, urban decay and “Every talk that I give, I always then the beginnings of mention Frank Batten and his vision FRANK BATTEN revitalization. Frank Batten for young leaders,” says Allan Stam, always stood for excellence dean of the Batten School. “He WANTED A in public life, selfless lead- thought the most important product ership and ethical conduct. DYNAMIC SCHOOL of American universities was the He was convinced that recruitment and training of the next OF THE FIRST leadership itself can be generation of leaders in our commu- TIER, NOT AN taught and learned; and nities and businesses.” » he wanted a dynamic IMITATION OF school of the first tier, not SOMETHING an imitation of something THE PLACE OF somewhere else. LEADERSHIP SOMEWHERE John Casteen is president BATTEN’S GIFT carried a proviso emeritus and professor of ELSE. that leadership be a major focus of the English at the University of School, even including the word in its — JOHN CASTEEN Virginia. 10 YEARS OF POSITIVE DISRUPTION 7 THE VISION TO LEAD leadership programs don’t prepare people to understand and solve com- plex societal problems, such as health care or poverty,” says Eric Patashnik, LEADERSHIP who co-chaired the faculty planning committee with Breneman. IS THE “We saw an opportunity to train a CRITICAL new generation of leaders who would combine the skillset of the policy RETROSPECT DIFFERENCE- analyst and the creativity of the social Gene Block MAKER IN entrepreneur. Then: Provost, “The U.S. today faces major chal- University of Virginia COMMUNITIES, lenges, from wage stagnation, the IN BUSINESSES I found the process decline of the middle class and the opi- of forming the School oid epidemic, to terrorism and climate AND IN OUR a positive, inspiring change,” Patashnik adds. “Experts experience. It was a clear GOVERNMENT. demonstration of how can offer critical insights and propose solutions, but relatively few possess — DEAN ALLAN STAM faculty, administration, alumni leaders and the the political skill and organizational Board of Visitors could acumen to build inclusive coalitions work together effectively. and turn good ideas into action.” Frank Batten was highly The Batten School is the smallest ac- name. The idea was initially greeted supportive of creating ademic unit at UVA, with 330 students with no small measure of skepticism a school for the study of the 22,000 attending the University. by the faculty senate, Breneman of public policy.

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