Who We Are

Our Chair, Al Weed, Operations Director, Diana Abbott, and Senior Policy Associate, Tatyanna Patten, split their time between the office and telecommuting to reduce PPV's transportation footprint. The office is manned from 9 am to 5 pm most weekday hours by these three and/or our interns. Eighty percent of Public Policy Virginia's work is done by volunteers, including research, speaking, fundraising, writing and graphics. Volunteers are welcome to put in whatever hours best suit their schedules—regular, irregular, full-time, once a month, working from home or from our office, according to the task at hand.

Interns often work on specific projects and programs with specified goals. If you would like to intern with PPV, please send us a cover letter, a resume, and let us know if, after reading our website, you see a specific project that peaks your interest.

Staff

Diana Abbott, Operations Director, chose a life of service to others at a young age. Her professional career began with Head Start, followed by a UVA pilot education program for the multiply handicapped and several other teaching positions. Her active volunteer work has spanned such diverse organizations as the Red Cross, the Girl Scouts, the Wildlife Center of Virginia, Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population, the Sierra Club-Piedmont Chapter, and the Emergency Food Bank. Fifth Congressional District residents may know her best from her politics. She has served as Free Union precinct captain for the White Hall Democratic district, the treasurer of the Ann Mallek for Supervisor campaign, and is a winner of the Ernie Nash award. Ms. Abbott has worked closely with Al Weed for many years, first as a Candidate’s Aide and, later, as Campaign Coordinator, during the 2004 and 2006 Congressional campaigns, respectively. Between those campaigns, she and Al established Public Policy Virginia in 2005. She graduated from Furman University with a BA in Sociology.

Sharon Baiocco, Ph.D., Grant Researcher, is a retired college dean and professor of English. During her career, she taught in Argosy University’s (FL) graduate division, pioneering in teaching prospective college teachers the art of teaching. Dr. Baiocco was a former “New York State College Teacher of the Year”; former Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at Jacksonville University (FL); experienced professor of English and Department Chair at D’Youville College (NY); national AT&T “Technology & Teaching” grant recipient; respected scholar; and co-author of national bestseller Successful College Teaching: Problem-Solving Strategies of Distinguished Professors (Allyn and Bacon, 1998). Dr. Baiocco was author of a visiting scholars grant to Jacksonville University, as well as part of a team who received a national grant for preparing teachers for technology, and of a state grant to offer school mentoring and campus summer camps for middle school children. Today she is a partner in the Collegiate Development Network Inc., a publisher of online materials to improve college teaching and learning. She is currently co-chair of her church’s Environmental Concerns Committee and a nature guide at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

Fania Gordon, Biomass Energy Research Associate, is a Masters candidate in the Urban & Environmental Planning Program at the University of Virginia. With funding from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy she has done the preliminary organization and data collection for Virginia Renewables: A Policy Framework for our Bioenergy Future. She holds B.A. in Environmental Thought & Practice and Environmental Science from the University of Virginia. After graduating, Fania worked with Pilgrim Partners, Inc. from 2004 to 2007 managing West Main Restaurant. Prior to joining PPV, she served as an extern with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in environmental planning and materials management.

Tatyanna L. (Tat) Patten, Senior Policy Associate, formerly with Nat’l Legal Research, has been politically active since 1984, having worked on various campaigns for Republican, Democratic, Green, and Libertarian candidates over the past 24 years. In the 1990s, she was a board manager for the ACLU Online and a content coordinator for Political Wag, an interactive wonk website. In 2001, she founded Charlottesville's Earth Week festival, chairing Earth Week through the 2008 event. She serves as Vice-President of the board of directors for the Rivanna Conservation Society and is a member of the Citizens Commission on Environmental Sustainability, among other titles and affiliations. In addition to her well-known activism, Ms. Patten brings a professional background in marketing & sales, administration, and web design. She has a BA from the University of Virginia and belongs to the International Webmasters Ass’n and HTML Writers Guild.

Glenn R. Short, Grant Researcher, is a retired Charlottesville born-again (non-evangelical) activist. Since arriving in town in 2002, he's become a member of: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, Unitarian-Universalist (where he serves on the Faith In Action community service lecture/dialogue committee and the Environmental Concerns committee); the Democratic Party (campaigning for Senator Jim Webb, Al Weed, David Toscano); PACEM; IMPACT; C'ville Peak Oil (with which he's spoken before the C'ville City Council & Albemarle Board of Supervisors (regarding the need for a fuel-reserve contingency plan). Prior to residing in Charlottesville, Mr. Short lived 28 years in Caracas, Venezuela, working as a free-lance journalist for--among others--the Financial Times of London, N.Y. Journal of Commerce, Mutual Radio, Caracas Daily Journal, the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (an international oil publication). He has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Masters of Science in Journalism degree from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

Albert C. (Al) Weed II, Chairman, owns and operates Mountain Cove Vineyards in Nelson County and is a founder of the Virginia Wine Industry.   He was involved in every significant legislative, regulatory and organizational development of this now vibrant industry’s first quarter century.  Twice the Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District, he worked for World Bank and the Arthur Lipper Corporation before settling in Central Virginia. Mr. Weed is the founder of Rural Nelson, a preservation group in his home county, and has served as a board member, director, and trustee for numerous non-profit concerns.  He serves on the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation’s Board of Trustees.  He served in the US Army Reserve for nearly 43 years, retiring from Army Special Operations as a Command Sergeant Major after active duty in both Viet Nam and Bosnia.  He currently spends half of his time in the daily operations of Public Policy Virginia, acting as its Executive Director. He has a BA (cum laude) from Yale in Latin Studies (with Highest Honors) and a Master’s Degree in Economic Development and Political Modernization from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He writes and speaks frequently about a broad range of public policy issues.

Donald C. (Don) Wells, Senior Researcher, is an astronomer (Ph.D., Astronomy, Texas, 1972) who retired from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, in 2004, after a 40-year career as a telescope control, instrumentation & data analysis software system designer. Mr. Wells became concerned about petroleum depletion at the time of the oil embargoes in the 1970s, and studied the subject during subsequent decades. When it became obvious that global warming implied that we must move away from fossil fuels, he concluded that biofuels must be a key component of our future post-Peak-Oil strategy. In particular, the NRDC’s Growing Energy report (Dec 2004) convinced him of the potential for biofuels in the USA. Mr. Wells is a member of the Stewardship of Creation committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, of the Charlottesville Peak Oil group, and of the Virginia Biomass Energy Group. He has spoken to various groups on Peak Oil in recent years. In February/March 2008, Don taught a course for UVA-OLLI(JILL) with the title Peak Oil, Biofuels and Sustainability.

Board of Directors

H. Lane Kneedler is a partner at the Richmond law firm Reed Smith. He has been the Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia, and was responsible for the Attorney General’s legislative program. He graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1969 and was a full professor and Associate Dean there. He is currently a visiting lecturer in law at the University. He has been a member of the Virginia Code Commission, the Virginia Crime Commission, and the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. From 1982 until 1994, he was the gubernatorial appointee to the National Conference of Commission on Uniform State Laws, and chaired the conference’s committee that drafted the Revised Uniform Partnership Act. Mr. Kneedler lobbies regularly with the Virginia General Assembly.

Mark B. Logan is the former Chairman and CEO of VISX, Inc., the inventor and world leader of the laser vision correction procedure known as LASIK. He retired in 2001. He is currently Chairman of Board of VIVUS, Inc. a publicly traded biotechnology firm. He is a director of Eyegenix, Inc., serves on the Investment Committee of Tall Oaks Capital LLP, the board of University of Virginia Heart and Vascular Center, is a director of Public Policy Virginia, and a trustee of Southern Environmental Law Center.

Lucia Phinney is a Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Her research and studio teaching are directed towards the rescue of the natural world through both representation and presentation, revealing rather than erasing the potential for natural systems to effectively engage and inform the places we make. Ms. Phinney’s recent work has been published in the following books and magazines: House Beautiful; Elle Décor; Storage, by Sally Clark; Architects House Themselves, by Michael Webb; and Eighteen Houses, W. Jude LeBlanc, ed. She has also served on the Building Committee and Board of Trustees for the Charlottesville Waldorf School and the Planning Committee for the village of Batesville, Virginia. She holds a B.A. from New College, and both M.Arch and M.L.A. from The University of Virginia.

W. McIlwaine (Mac) Thompson, Jr., is Of Counsel to Woods Rogers. Mac practices corporate law representing companies in diverse fields including biotechnology, high-tech, publishing, and oil and gas exploration. He serves on the boards of a number of privately-held companies and is on the Investment Committee of Tall Oaks Capital, L.P., a venture capital partnership based in Charlottesville. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Heart Center at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and General Counsel to, and the immediate Past Chairman of, the Board of Directors of UVA’s Curry School of Education Foundation. He has been an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Moderator of the Presbytery of the James and a member of the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. He was also Chairman of the Charlottesville Committee on Foreign Relations and the Ash Lawn-Highland Opera Festival where he continues to serve as director. Past Secretary of the Yale class of 1969, he graduated from Yale College in 1969 and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1972.