This is the week when airplanes are filled with Louisianans headed to Washington, D.C., to celebrate and bring greater visibility to our great state through the lens of Mardi Gras. Well over 3,000 political, business and community leaders and their families are participating in Washington Mardi Gras this year. A walk through the lobby of the Washington Hilton will almost certainly give you the opportunity to bump into a Louisiana senator, commissioner, CEO, general, president or princess. You can also stop by the Governor’s suite to visit with Governor John Bel Edwards and his wife Donna, or Congressman Ralph Abraham’s suite to visit with him, his wife Diane and other friends. While having dinner in the banquet hall, our newest Senator, John Kennedy, may stop by your table to chat. Or you may have dinner with the recently appointed Secretary of the Air Force…  all things that happened for me and Kathy this week. Kathy and I arrived in DC late Tuesday and we spent our time traveling around the greater DC area to visit with our congressmen, government agencies and business partners to provide updates on our university and to seek opportunities for further funding. I made all of my visits with my colleague and good friend, Craig Spohn of the Cyber Innovation Center. We visited with several of our Congressmen in their offices on Capitol Hill and also with some key staff members in the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation. We also visited with senior leadership of our corporate partner CSRA in their headquarters at Falls Church, VA. That partnership is continuing to grow and I expect to see even greater impacts of CSRA’s presence in North Louisiana in the future.  On Friday, we had an economic development luncheon with approximately 2,500 in attendance to hear each of our Congressmen and our Governor make remarks. We are in the last day of Washington Mardi Gras and Kathy and I are now ready for a break! I don’t think we will get one though….  From Washington, Happy Mardi Gras! Hope you enjoy some of my favorite pics for the week: