About the Tennessee Valley Corridor

The Tennessee Valley Corridor was organized in 1995 based on the ideas of former Tennessee Governor and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and former Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp. In the 1980s, Governor Alexander had a vision to create an “Oak Ridge Corridor” to link the Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the University of Tennessee to showcase the wealth of brainpower in the mid-East Tennessee region. In 1995 former Congressman Wamp founded an annual Science & Technology Summit to convene representatives from government, academia and business to collaborate on ways to bring greater attention to the economic impact of the Department of Energy missions in Oak Ridge. These two complementary ideas of a “Corridor and Summit” merged and resulted in the creation of a 501-c-6 organization, the Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC), that has gradually expanded and now represents a footprint of 13 congressional districts in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina. Through the leadership of our Board of Directors, Institutional Liaisons and Leadership Council members, the TVC convenes an annual National Summit, promotes initiatives to advance the TVC’s mission and leadership, and encourages on-going collaborations in national security, energy, environment, science, space, transportation, education, and workforce development.