Staff

2012-2013

Addie Bryant

Editor-in-Chief
adelina.bryant@virginia.edu
Addie is a second-year student at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She previously attended the University of Texas at Austin (UT) where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Government.  While at UT, Addie was a member of Student Government and lobbied lawmakers at the State Capitol on behalf of students in higher education.  She passed her first bill in spring 2003 when the Governor of Texas signed legislation, which for the first time mandated student representation on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.  After graduation, Addie served one year as an Americorps VISTA volunteer and two years in the Peace Corps in El Salvador. In Peace Corps, she served as Youth Development Editor for the Peace Corps El Salvador Magazine. She has worked as a Legislative Aide in both the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate.

Melissa Rickman
Executive Editor
mar7zd@virginia.edu
Melissa is a second-year Batten student from Williamsburg, Virginia. As Executive Editor of the Virginia Policy Review, Melissa is dedicated to the events and publicity of Batten’s public policy journal. After spending her first two years at UVa orchestrating the University’s college-level Model UN conference, VICS, Melissa is now the President of the International Relations Organization. Her policy passion is for international development, specifically public private partnerships. She is in love with Gross National Happiness and the Kingdom of Bhutan, where she spent the summer of 2011 conducting research and developing an intense appreciation for chilies and yak cheese. Melissa spent this past summer in D.C. working for Chemonics International, a development company operating in nearly every region of the world.

Bailey Morton
Managing Editor
kbm2g@virginia.edu
Bailey is a first-year at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. After graduating from UVA in ’09 with degrees in English and Spanish, she joined the Peace Corps and set out for adventure in the land of Azerbaijan.  While there, she taught English and art and helped a women’s NGO develop a nationwide anti-domestic violence network.  It was during this project that Bailey realized she should earn a degree in public policy.  Her academic interests are international development and poverty reduction, specifically among women and youth in conflict regions.

Benjamin W. Lynch
Copy Editor
bwl4rv@email.virginia.edu
Benjamin is a first-year at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He is a graduate from Wake Forest University, Benjamin served as the Chairman of a state political organization, co- founded a community organization that sought to assist small businesses, and attempted to launch an undergraduate academic journal. After two summers of working for a presidential and senatorial campaign, Benjamin worked for the Department of Justice and became interested in the entanglements of law and public policy. His quest to serve humanity through the pursuit of knowledge led him to Teach For America at Yazoo City High School, where he served as department chair and taught science.

Ammy George
Senior Domestic Editor
amg7j@virginia.edu
Ammy is a second-year student at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She graduated with honors from West Virginia University with a Bachelors of Science in Landscape Architecture in 1996. After graduation, she worked as a senior designer/project manager in the civil engineering/site development field in northern Virginia and in the Charlottesville area. During her professional career, Ammy succeed in becoming a Certified Landscape Architect in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a LEED Accredited Professional with the US Green Building Council. She will be defending her thesis, The Potential Carbon Offset of Green Roofs, in the Fall of 2012 for a Masters of Arts degree from the Environmental Science department at UVA. Ammy hopes to combine the discipline of public policy and environmental science to challenge the overriding message that we could either have the natural world or our advanced society, but not both. She believes that continued imagination, innovation and choice would allow us to protect our natural environment and keep a modern way of life. After completing her first year of the Batten’s Master of Public Policy program, Ammy worked for the Office of Environmental Strategic Management in the Office of Policy of the Environmental Protection Agency on the issue of sustainability ratings.

Tony Lucadamo
Senior International Editor
ajl8nd@virginia.edu
Tony is a first-year M.P.P. student at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Before joining the graduate program at U.Va., he served as a Field Organizer and Blog Coordinator with Obama for America. Previously, Tony worked in the U.S. Senate as a Foreign Affairs and National Defense Fellow. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and International Affairs from the University of Georgia. During this time, he took coursework at Oxford University (UK). Tony is a small business owner and a Featured Columnist for the Bleacher Report. His work has been featured in publications ranging from the Liverpool Word to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Caitlin Cummings
Outreach Coordinator & Associate Editor
cdc8s@virginia.edu
Caitlin is a first-year M.P.P. student at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2010 and originally hails from Richmond, Virginia. For the past two years, she has lived in New York City, initially working as a Corporate Legal Assistant in the M&A group at Cravath, Swaine and Moore. After realizing law wasn’t for her, she worked in the Political Science editorial department of W.W. Norton Publishing, where she has been lucky enough to collaborate on a book series with Amnesty International and recently edit the forthcoming third edition of Waltz and Sagan’s “Spread of Nuclear Weapons.”

Maddie Bergner
Associate Editor
Maddie is a second-year in the Batten School accelerated program. She is interested in international policy, specifically in East Asia, concerning regional security and cooperation. This past summer she worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei writing articles for the monthly Business Topics magazine.

Natasha Reese
Event Coordinator & Associate Editor 
Natasha is a first-year graduate student at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.  She attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where she received a dual degree in Culture and Politics and Latin American Studies. While at Georgetown, Natasha developed an interest in international development and spent a semester working at the World Bank in the Human Development Office and a semester at the State Department working on immigration issues. After graduation, Natasha worked at Conservation International where she assisted in the development of sustainable coffee and Exxon Mobil offset projects in Latin America and Africa. At the University of Virginia, Natasha hopes to continue her international development studies, focusing on infrastructure and water policy. Natasha is Bolivian-American and spent much of her childhood in La Paz, Bolivia. She hopes to eventually work in the region.

Evan Vahouny
Associate Editor
Evan is a second-year graduate student at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.  Evan interned at the Department of Justice in the Criminal Division’s Office of Policy and Legislation this past summer. He also worked as an intern with Senator Jim Webb (D-Va) in Washington, DC and as a researcher with Burke PLLC, a law firm in Georgetown. During the 2009 fall semester, Evan interned with Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. He is particularly interested in criminal justice reform and campaign finance reform.