John Lowe

Biography

Dr. Lowe is the Joseph Blades Centennial Memorial Professor and the Director of the Indigenous Nursing Research Enhancement (INRE) Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. 

Dr. Lowe recently served as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Institutes of Nursing Research (NINR). He co-authored with Dr. Roxanne Struthers (Ojibwe) the Conceptual Framework for Nursing in Native American Culture. He is a Cherokee Native American tribal member and also has Lenape Native American tribal heritage. 

Dr. Lowe was the first Native American man to be inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and currently serves as an elected member of the Board of Directors. He is an alumnus of the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) at the American Nurses Association and has served as the Chair of the National Advisory Council to the MFP. 

Dr. Lowe developed and studies interventions for the prevention and reduction of substance use and mental health disorders among Native American and Indigenous youth and young adults globally. These studies and other health programs are guided by models that Dr. Lowe developed which include the Cherokee Self-Reliance, Native Self-Reliance and Native-Reliance theoretical framework and models. 

Dr. Lowe also developed the first manualized Talking Circle intervention to reduce substance use, mental, emotional, and behavioral health risks among Native American/Indigenous youth in the United States and globally in countries such as Canada and Australia. His research projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, and other organizations and foundations such as the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Talking Circle intervention has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs as a “Promising Evidence-Based Program” for the well-being of youth, recognized as the first manualized Talking Circle intervention, featured as one of the American Academy of Nursing’s “Edge Runners,” and most recently featured in the National Academy of Medicine report of The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. 

Dr. Lowe developed the first Center for Indigenous Nursing Research and hosted the first and third International Indigenous Nursing Research Summits in 2017 and 2022. 

Dr. Lowe’s work also has been acknowledged through numerous awards such as the American Nurses Association Luther Christman Award, Florida Nurses Association Cultural Diversity Award, Great 100 Centennial Research Award, Nursing Educator of the Year Award, Nurse of the Year Award, Lifetime Achievement In Education & Research Award, the Researcher of the Year at the Professor Rank Award, and most recently induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. Dr. Lowe has presented nationally and internationally and has published several articles and books.