LaMarr Billups loves his new life but still wears a Badgers hat.

Billups, longtime special assistant to the chancellor at UW-Madison and a force in city affairs, departed in May to be an assistant vice president for business policy planning at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

He's been given a host of responsibilities in the areas of labor relations, trademark licensing, high-tech licensing, all while easing into the culture of the Jesuit university.

"I'm still learning a lot but really enjoying it," he said.

A highlight, he said, was traveling to the Middle East this fall to negotiate safety standards at the Education City campus, which hosts Georgetown and five other prestigious American universities in Doha, Qatar.

"It was interesting because I had to learn how to deal with another way of looking at the world," he said.

Billups said he and his wife, Sheryl, who lived in a Downtown Madison condominium, have settled in the suburban community of Falls Church, Va., "within spitting distance of the original headquarters of the CIA."

"It's a bit more suburban, a bit West Side, but it's nice," he said.

Sheryl Billups, who retired from the state Department of Workforce Development, has already been elected to the board of the county Democratic Party.

LaMarr Billups, who served on several Madison and Dane County committees and on the boards of the Overture Center, Urban League of Greater Madison, Edgewood College and the Collaboration Council-Capital Region, is beginning to connect with Washington, D.C., affairs and expects to be named to the national board of the American Kidney Foundation.

"I'll probably be looking for a couple of other things to do," he said.

A devout Badgers fan, Billups has been satisfying his sports appetite with the Georgetown Hoyas and other local offerings such as the Washington Redskins and Wizards.

But "I miss Big Ten sports," he said, adding that he still wears his Badgers hats and can even catch an occasional home game because he continues to serve on the Edgewood College board and returns for meetings.

Although he still wears his red, he diplomatically calls himself a "Bahoya" - part Badger, part Georgetown Hoya.

Most of all, Billups said, he misses his Wisconsin friends.

"I miss my people," he said.

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