Biography

Dr. Vernon Kennedy Dunn, Jr. works on in Government Affairs team for G2G Consulting, LLC in Washington, D.C. The firm help bioscience and high tech companies shape federal regulations and policies and secure non-dilutive federal funding. Vernon is a published scientist with a background in wide-ranging STEM and higher education policy and programming. While completing his doctorate at LSU, he worked for the Louisiana Board of Regents, managing the Louisiana STEM Advisory Council. As the only hired staff for the council, he led legislative research and analysis efforts, built strategic partnerships with external stakeholders, organized fundraising initiatives, and researched and wrote policy recommendations for the Louisiana legislature. He also helped to plan and execute the state’s first Louisiana STEM Summit in 2018. As a graduate student at LSU and awardee of both National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Fellowships, he was elected as the university’s first Graduate Student Body President, where he worked with senior administrators to increase graduate student stipends and travel awards and sat on several committees involving campus strategic planning, policy and student affairs.

Vern is an Adjunct Professor in SOPA's Kinesiology Department, where he teaches the Life Span Motor Development (KINE 3130) online course. Vernon has a B.S. in Psychology and Chemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana, and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!)

What are your favorite activities when you are not working?
Triathlon Training, moves, reading

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
MARS!

What advice would you give to someone who's considering finishing their degree, or starting for the first time as an adult?
Choose the field you're the most passionate about or most interested in, and not necessarily the one that sounds like it best aligns with your career. You can take the required courses while you soar in your major course that you enjoy.