Heidi Wachs

Heidi L. Wachs is the Director of IT Policy and Privacy Officer for Georgetown University. She combines her professional background in technology policy and public relations to develop and implement sound policy to preserve the privacy and integrity of those who use Georgetown University information systems and their data. She also serves as a member of the EDUCAUSE Network Policy Council, a special advisory body that studies the full range of network and telecommunications policy issues confronting the research and education communities and determines how to manage and respond to those issues with a comprehensive policy message.


Prior to Georgetown University, Heidi worked as a Government Relations Officer for EDUCAUSE, a non-profit association whose mission is to promote the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. In that capacity, she advocated on behalf of EDUCAUSE members, and provided them with insight on a diverse range of legal and policy issues including patent reform, copyright and file sharing, and e-discovery. Heidi was also staff liaison for the EDUCAUSE Network Policy Council.


Before joining the higher education community, Heidi worked as a Public Interest Legal Fellow for Public Knowledge. She also represented divisions of IBM as a public relations executive for more than two years before attending law school.


Heidi earned a BA in Journalism from Lehigh University and a JD with a concentration in Intellectual Property from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia and authored an article entitled “Permissive Pornography: The Selective Censorship of the Internet Under CIPA,” published in the Cardozo Women’s Law Journal.