Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart currently serves as President of Amarillo College and was recently named a Top Ten Finalist for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. His leadership is focused on improving student success through systemic and cultural change centered on one word — love, and by empowering the student voice in redesigning higher education.

During Dr. Lowery-Hart’s career, he developed the systemic Culture of Caring, targeting removal of poverty barriers, scaling accelerated learning options, and ensuring employees intentionally love students to success. Amarillo College’s work on poverty was featured in The Atlantic (June 2018).

Dr. Lowery-Hart was selected into the inaugural class of the Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence, a rigorous executive leadership program led by the Aspen Institute and the Stanford Educational Leadership Initiative. He served as the chair for the Amarillo “No Limits/No Excuses” Partners for Postsecondary Success Collective Impact, a 21-organization collaborative focused on education certificate and degree completion leading to living wage employment. Dr. Lowery-Hart also served as the chair for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Undergraduate Education Advisory Committee charged with evaluating and redesigning the state of Texas general education requirements.

Dr. Lowery-Hart previously served as Vice-President of Academic Affairs for Amarillo College and was named the National Council of Instructional Administrators Academic Leader of the Year for 2014. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio University, M.A. from Texas Tech University, and B.S. from West Texas State University.

While his calling is education reform, his passion is family. His wife, Tara, sons, Christopher and Campbell, daughter, Cadence, and dog, Sadie, fill his life with beauty and joy.

View the written Q&A following Dr. Lowrey-Hart's presentation delivered October 2 at SSSC20.