A Professor Goes to Washington: An Open Letter to Colleagues

In this essay, I reflect on my experiences and lessons learned while serving as Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Although I was in the grant writing business for my nearly 30 years as a professor of special education, I learned that I knew very little about the grant making business from the agency perspective and, perhaps more importantly, how funding worked. My aim in this article is to convince readers that their participation in working with funding agencies and the legislative branch of the federal government is worth their time and effort. I especially want to convince senior researchers that their expertise and eloquence is especially needed and mostly appreciated.