Lowry to be featured guest on 'Now That You Ask' interview Nov. 5

Kim Chaudoin | 10/30/2013

Lipscomb University’s Nelson and Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership presents “now that you ask… A Conversation Series hosted by Tom Ingram” with special guest Lipscomb University President L. Randolph Lowry Nov. 5. Ingram has been an influential adviser to corporate and government officials for more than four decades.

The forum begins at 6:30 p.m. in Lipscomb’s Shamblin Theatre, located in Bennett Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public.

The program will take a look at the successful leadership of Lowry, who, since being named Lipscomb University’s president in July 2005, has guided the university through a time of unprecedented growth much of which was in the midst of one of the nation’s worst financial crises. Under his leadership Lipscomb University has

• experienced an 82 percent enrollment growth;
• increased the diversity of its student body to 18 percent, higher than many of Tennessee’s other colleges and universities;
• completed a $54 million initiative that dramatically advanced the institution’s academic programs and campus facilities, including establishing Middle Tennessee’s first College of Pharmacy;
• launched seven institutes designed to offer academic programs and to serve the community through their programs and services;
• embarked on an initiative to invest $125 million in the university’s programs and facilities by its 125^th anniversary in 2016; and
• received numerous national and regional recognition for its quality and excellence including being named one of four top teacher-training programs in the United States by the National Council on Teacher Quality, ranked in the top 12 percent in the nation in Washington Monthly’s list of “Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges” and named in U.S. News and World Report’s “2014 America’s Best Colleges” guidebook as one of the top five regional universities in the South whose students graduate with the least debt load.

In December 2012, Lowry was named one of Nashville’s “Most Admired CEOs” by the Nashville Business Journal. He received the honor for his proven ability to lead Lipscomb University through a period of growth and increasing significance in the Nashville community even during a period of economic challenge. Finalists were determined by votes from their peers. He has been featured in a variety of national media outlets including CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post and Washington Monthly as a conflict management expert. Beyond academics, Lowry is heavily involved in the Nashville community. He is a member of the Agenda for Nashville's Future, the Rotary Club of Nashville and the Middle Tennessee Council of the Boy Scouts of America’s executive committee. He co-chaired the Nashville Mayor’s Green Ribbon Committee and serves on the boards of a variety of community organizations including United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, the American Heart Association and the leadership council for the Nelson and Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership. He was a member of the 2007 class of Leadership Nashville.

The “now that you ask…” Conversation Series is hosted by Ingram, the man called the “most influential person in Tennessee politics who does not hold elected office.” The series brings Ingram’s bipartisan, common sense approach to government and politics straight to the table with discussions and debates featuring guests from across the business and political worlds. The previous editions of “now that you ask…” have featured one-on-one interviews with such leaders as Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, Tennessee’s First Lady Crissy Haslam, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and John Seigenthaler, a leader in American journalism and politics.

Ingram, founder of The FIRST Group in Washington, D.C., and The Ingram Group in Nashville, was appointed a leader-in-residence at the Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership in September 2011. While serving in Washington, Ingram was regularly named by Roll Call as one of its “Fabulous Fifty” most influential people on the Hill.

Ingram spent most of the last decade as a top aide to Senate Republicans, holding the dual roles of chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander and staff director for the Senate Republican Conference. In 2012, he served as a senior advisor to former China Ambassador Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign and continues as an advisor to Senator Lamar Alexander and Governor Bill Haslam after successfully guiding their statewide elections.

For more information visit www.lipscomb.edu/civicleadership.