Working on behalf of an Association client, Lewis-Burke designed and executed the client’s annual meeting in Washington, DC during a period of protracted political sensitivity on a variety of topics important to research institutions.
In designing a program of federal speakers and policymaker engagement for the meeting, Lewis-Burke surveyed the current landscape of policy issues impacting research institutions and leveraged professional relationships to secure appearances by key federal policymakers and related thought leaders, including the Director of the White House Office of Science Policy, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, a senior official from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and a leading science journalist with NPR, among others. In addition, Lewis-Burke planned the client’s Capitol Hill Advocacy Day, which saw 100+ individuals fanning out over Capitol Hill to conduct more than 60 meetings with their congressional representatives to advocate for the federal policy priorities of the Association.
Lewis-Burke’s efforts in planning and executing the annual meeting ensured that the Association and its leadership were viewed by federal policymakers as key stakeholders in the development of the nation’s biomedical research agenda.