Office Of Federal Relations

Do you want a quick, reliable way to keep up with the issues in Washington, D.C. that matter to Vanderbilt University? DCbrief from the Office of Federal Relations provides timely, concise summaries of news items to inform Vanderbilt faculty and staff of federal policy developments that impact the university and higher education.  Read More

In late June, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier traveled to Washington, D.C., for a day of congressional meetings and to headline Vanderbilt University’s congressional reception. His visit, organized by Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal Relations, came at a pivotal moment as Congress considers sweeping budget and tax legislation.  Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Division of Government and Community Relations, in partnership with the Office of Data and Strategic Analytics, has released the FY 2024 District Impact Report—an interactive dashboard that illustrates the university’s contributions to each of Tennessee’s nine congressional districts, 99 state House districts and 33 state Senate districts.  Read More

To address the complexities AI poses to the nation’s economy and security, Vanderbilt University experts retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, founding director of Vanderbilt’s Institute of National Security, and Jesse Spencer-Smith, interim director of the Data Science Institute, shared crucial insights with a bipartisan group of congressional staff on Capitol Hill. Read More

18 Vanderbilt graduate students and postdoctoral researchers traveled to Washington, D.C., in October to participate in Vanderbilt’s Federal STEM Policy and Advocacy Seminar. This two-day event is designed to provide STEM professionals with an inside look at the federal policymaking process, the importance of advocacy in advancing science and research priorities and to explore careers in science policy. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Office of Federal Relations hosted U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly on campus to talk about cybersecurity workforce shortages and the higher education cybersecurity ecosystem. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Jules White, a leading computer scientist and expert on large language models and prompt engineering, visited Capitol Hill recently to share his expertise with lawmakers. Read More

On National Humanities Alliance’s advocacy day in D.C., through a series of meetings and a social media campaign, Vanderbilt students advocated for federal funding to support the National Endowment for the Humanities. This effort was part of the Robert Penn Warren Center’s Humanities in the Real World: Undergraduate Advocacy Fellowship in collaboration with Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal Relations.  Read More

Vanderbilt University Government Relations is hosting a student advocacy workshop on Thursday, April 4, 2:30–4 p.m. in the Kissam Multipurpose Room. The workshop will be an interactive working session about advocacy best practices to help equip students with practical skills they can use to advocate effectively for their interests. Read More

Krish Roy, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of the School of Engineering and University Distinguished Professor, met with members of Congress in early February to discuss the importance of engineering’s role in improving living standards, socioeconomic growth and global competitiveness. Read More

A new Android app developed at Vanderbilt uses tactile feedback technology to help students with visual impairments to master algebra, geometry, graphing and other subjects that are particularly hard to comprehend without the aid of normal vision. Read More

Eight scientists, including four Nobel laureates, received the first Golden Goose Awards on Thursday, Sept. 13 at an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill. The award was established to highlight the importance of federally funded basic research that, on the surface, seemed particularly odd or obscure, but which ended up having a large impact on society. Read More