Growing up in a small town on the West Coast, Gerald Warburg said Washington, D.C., “seemed like Oz, 10,000 miles away.” So he was surprised to find himself at age 21 working as a legislative assistant to House and Senate leaders.
After a decade and a half in the legislative branch, he became disenchanted by a lack of results. He began working at one of the largest government relations firms in Washington and teaching classes at Georgetown University.
“When I saw how outgunned a lot of environmental policy and civil rights groups were by corporate lobbies, I promised myself that if I ever had the opportunity to help level the playing field, I would,” he said.
But even working with nonprofits and taking on pro bono clients, he felt he wasn’t serving his original mission to equip citizens for action. So, when his daughter Jennifer, then a University of Virginia student, called to say there was a new school of leadership and public policy opening at UVA, he paid attention.
“She encouraged me to meet with the incoming head of Batten,” he said. “I was told there were a large number of candidates and I didn’t have a traditional academic background, so I didn’t think I was serious competition.”
But, to his great surprise, after two days of interviews, he was offered the job. That was 2009; he has been here ever since, helping mold the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy from an idea to an institution.
He hasn’t gone unnoticed by his peers. Earlier this year, he received the prestigious 2024 All-University Teaching Award, nominated by the dean of the Batten School, Ian Solomon.
“By this point, there are hundreds of students working on Capitol Hill, serving in government agencies, and serving in local communities across the world, who owe so much to him in terms of how they analyze difficult issues and engage with others whom they agree and disagree with,” said Solomon, who credits Warburg for being an integral part of the Batten School’s creation and growth.
“At the start, we were 25 students and three faculty in the old Confederate war hospital morgue,” Warburg remembered.
Their goal was to grow the school tenfold in the first 10 years. According to Warburg, the Batten School exceeded that ambitious goal and now has hundreds of students, 36 full-time faculty supported by dozens of shared professors and adjuncts.
“The Batten community is this remarkably rich, stimulating place,” he said. “It is exciting to be part of a team designing an institution and a vibrant program that can change and grow after the senior professors make way for the next generation.”
Warburg said he has seen young people lose a bit of confidence that they can use politics to achieve results. He sees it as his job to empower them to advance their political views, regardless of his own.
“Washington can be quite patronizing, elitist and dismissive of young voters,” he said. “I want my students to be able to stand up for their principles and follow their own North Star.”
That’s why he includes role-playing simulations in his class. In October, for example, he simulated a government shutdown and had students who identify more with Democratic politics play the role of Republicans, and vice versa.
He also created a course that teaches students how to lead a nongovernmental organization after realizing many students would pursue their passions through NGO work and needed to be prepared.
