L. Randolph Lowry III

President
Lipscomb University

Dr. L. Randolph Lowry, founder of the nationally-recognized Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and professor of law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., took office as Lipscomb University’s 17th president Sept. 26, 2005.

Connecting the university to the community is a hallmark of Lowry’s presidency.  He views the city of Nashville as the university’s campus and the world as its classroom. Not long after his arrival on the Lipscomb campus he proposed a $54 million plan to dramatically advance Lipscomb's academic programs and to invest in new campus facilities.  During his tenure a new College of Pharmacy has been established creating the first Lipscomb doctorate degree, sixteen new graduate programs have been developed, and four new institutes have been founded including the Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity, the Institute for Conflict Management, the Institute for Law, Justice and Society and the Institute for Sustainable Practice.

Under Lowry’s leadership the university embarked on a building program that included the renovation of several academic and residence buildings on campus, the building of a music wing and a residence facility, among other initiatives. In August 2008, $34 million in new construction and renovated facilities were opened, including the Burton Health Sciences Center, The Village at Lipscomb, the Thomas James McMeen Music Center and Collins Alumni Auditorium.
 
Beyond academics, Lowry is involved in the Nashville community. He is a member of the Agenda for Nashville's Future, the Downtown Rotary Club, the boards of the Alliance for Public Education, Character Counts and the YMCA. Membership in Partnership 2010 of the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way have also reflected his service to Nashville.  He was a member of the 2007 class of Leadership Nashville.  In May of 2007, Lowry was selected as one of Nashville’s top 50 Business and Community Leaders for the Future by “Celebrate Nashville,” the official publication for Nashville’s 200 year anniversary.  

Service is an important aspect of life at Lipscomb. Lowry believes that for service to be meaningful, however, the university community must also engage with the city.  Lipscomb is the first university in Nashville with a service-learning requirement for all of its undergraduate students providing tens of thousands of hours of service to more than 75 community organizations. Through the Institute for Conflict Management, Lowry has been engaged in initiatives with local school districts and police departments as well as other civic organizations.

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Lowry earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from the Malibu, California university. He received the juris doctor degree from Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1986, Lowry joined the law school faculty at Pepperdine and established a new international academic program in the emerging field of dispute resolution. In addition to teaching at Pepperdine, Lowry has worked, literally, around the world. He is an annual visiting faculty member at Vermont Law School and City University of Hong Kong. He has also taught at Shantou University, in Beijing, China; Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia; Hamline University; and the University of Modena in Modena, Italy. His consulting and training practice has included work for the legal community in The Netherlands, the introduction of mediation in India through a grant from the Asian Development Bank, training for judges in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as consultation with lawyers for Freshfields, an international law firm in Asia.