Since the end of July, Washington DC and the UW Office of Federal Relations welcomed no less than eleven faculty and staff from the Seattle and Bothell campuses. Almost all were in DC to attend professional association meetings, but they were also able to spend some time speaking to representatives of federal agencies and staff of the Washington delegation on Capitol Hill.
Dr. Bob Crittendon, Chief of Family Medicine Service at Harborview Medical Center, and Dr. Jim Davis, Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the UW Medical School, were in attendance at the family medicine association in August.
In September, President Mark Emmert was in DC, along with Judy Wasserheit and King Holmes (C0Chairs of the UW’s Global Health), for the annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. President Emmert was a panel member in an afternoon session on September 14th.
Professor Deborah McCutchen (Educational Psychology) was in DC in mid-September to attend the Learning and Education Academic Research Network coalition meeting.
Martha Somerman, Dean of the School of Dentistry, was in DC in September to attend the American Dental Association’s Legislative Advisory Committee meeting and to gain support for including oral health care services in the health care reform bill.
Kay Lewis, Director of Student Financial Aid, was in DC to gain Senate support for increases to the Pell Grant program.
Paul Jenny, Vice Provost for Planning and Budgeting attended the meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and also visited the Office of Federal Relations
Bruce Kochis, Senior Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences brought 23 students with him to DC to discuss human rights issues with staff at federal agencies and on the Hill. They also met with Jonathan Nurse in the Federal Relations office to learn about the legislative process.
To end September, John Delaney, Professor of Oceanography, met with staff from the Washington delegation offices to brief them on the Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI), a project that was recently funded by the National Science Foundation through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It’s an exciting collaborative effort, funded for 5.5 years, to construct a networked infrastructure of sciencedriven sensors that will measure the physical, chemical, geological, and biological veriable in the ocean and sea floor.
If you are planning a trip to Washington, DC, please contact the Office of Federal Relations (202-624-1420) for assistance in setting up appointments to meet with Members or staffers of the Washington state delegations. We’re happy to help.