Name Lillian Lowery | ||
Occupation Former Superintendent, Maryland State Department of Education | ||
Lillian M. Lowery, Ed.D. discusses early learning.
Lillian M. Lowery is an American government official and educator who has served as Superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education in the Cabinet of Governors Martin O'Malley and Larry Hogan from July 2012 to September, 2015.
Lowery was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. Her educational background includes a B.A. in English from North Carolina Central University, an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and an Ed.D. in education and policy studies from Virginia Tech.
Following completion of her Master's degree in 1978, Lowery became a middle school English teacher in the Gaston County Schools in Gastonia, North Carolina before moving on to a similar position in the Alexandria City Public Schools in Alexandria, Virginia in 1984 where she served until 1988. From 1988 to 2002, she served in several positions within the Fairfax County Public Schools based in Fairfax, Virginia including high school English teacher, assistant principal, minority student achievement monitor, and principal. In 2002, she became an Area Administrator for the Fort Wayne Community Schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana serving in that post until 2004, when she returned to the Fairfax County Public Schools in order to serve as an Assistant Superintendent until 2006. From 2006 until her appointment as Delaware Secretary of Education three years later, she served as Superintendent of the Christina School District in Newark, Delaware. Prior to moving to Maryland in 2012, she had served as Secretary of the Delaware Department of Education in the Cabinet of Governor Jack Markell since 2009.>
In September, 2015, she resigned as Superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education in order to become the first President and Chief Executive Officer of FutureReady Columbus, a Columbus, Ohio-based non-profit organization specializing in early childhood education. In March, 2017, she was appointed as Vice President for PreK-12 Policy, Research, and Practice at The Education Trust, a national nonprofit organization working to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps in K-12 education.