Al Gore

Al Gore joined the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in January 2001 to teach the interdisciplinary course "Community Building: A Comprehensive Family CenteredApproach." He holds similar teaching appointments at Columbia University, New York, and Fisk University, Nashville. At MTSU, he is a visiting professor under the auspices of the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies.

The son of Pauline LaFon Gore and the late U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr., a 1932 graduate of MTSU, the younger Gore was raised in Carthage, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. He received a degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969. After graduation, he volunteered to enlist in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. Returning to civilian life, Gore became an investigative reporter with The Tennessean in Nashville. He attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Vanderbilt Law School.

Al Gore began his career in public service in 1976 when he was elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977-1985). He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990 (1985-1993). A candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988, he won more than three million votes and Democratic contests in seven states. He was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served two terms. Gore was the Democratic Presidential candidate in 2000, garnering 51 million votes.

The Gore Research Center on the Middle Tennessee State University campus, houses the official papers of Gore's late father as well as those of a number of other individuals.