Where Are They Now? 

A Q&A with Roger Lowe 

"The Red Cross was the best job I ever had and I have applied the experience and lessons learned there in every job since. It’s not perfect; no place is. But the shared experiences and friendships I have from my Red Cross days are stronger and longer-lasting than any of my other jobs over 40 years." 

Roger with Alexis, his wife of 44 years, in West Palm Beach, Florida in January, "escaping the cold."

Q. What brought you to the American Red Cross, and what did you do when you worked there? 

I joined the Red Cross in March 2009 as the Senior Vice President of Communications. For several years before that, I had been part of an informal Kitchen Cabinet of public affairs advisers for Suzy DeFrancis, the Chief Public Affairs Officer, who I had worked with previously in my public relations career. 

So, when there was an opening as SVP for the Communications Department, I was excited about the chance to work for an organization that made such a difference for people across the country and the world, as well as being able to work again with Suzy.

Q. What experience and innovation did you bring to the Red Cross?

Before joining the Red Cross, I had spent more than 20 years as a reporter for Ohio newspapers, mostly as a statehouse reporter and then in the Washington bureau for the Columbus Dispatch. After leaving the news business, I spent a total of eight years at two large PR firms, helping non-profits and private sector clients large and small tell their stories.

As a reporter, I covered a wide range of issues, and I believe I brought to the Red Cross the ability to identify a good story that would be both interesting and newsworthy and to tell it in a compelling way. And not surprisingly, I often could anticipate the kinds of questions that reporters would likely ask when we were responding to a disaster, announcing a new health and safety initiative, or describing the urgent need for blood donations. And then we had to make sure we were prepared with solid answers.

The Communications Department already had a daily newsroom meeting when I arrived, and I became very active in it. We discussed what was going on that day, determined the Red Cross stories we were proactively pitching, the questions and issues we were reacting to, and the matters we were engaging in on social media. And we decided what our top stories for the website would be each day. This was the daily execution of our proactive, reactive and interactive communications strategy. 

I was fortunate to have a strong team in place when I arrived, and worked to build a stronger sense of teamwork across the department. There were often times when one part of the organization was in the midst of a crisis and people from other groups stepped up to help one another. Many of the issues that the Red Cross deal with have major effects on the lives of people, and it was important that we were there to support each other in these times. The public only sees the Red Cross, not separate departments or business units, and we needed to respond and communicate with one voice.

That coordinated effort is necessary because you never know what life may throw at you. For example, I would never have anticipated that in my first 12 months at the Red Cross, there would be no major hurricanes. The three biggest issues were a swine flu outbreak, labor issues in our blood regions and a devastating earthquake in Haiti. 

Q: What work have you done since leaving the Red Cross, and for whom?  

Photo: "Back in Ohio at Bowling Green State University, where we first met."

Q. What advice would you give to those who have recently left the Red Cross?

The Red Cross was the best job I ever had and I have applied the experience and lessons learned there in every job since. It’s not perfect; no place is. But the shared experiences and friendship I have from my Red Cross days are stronger and longer-lasting than any of my other jobs over 40 years. 

My advice: Stay in touch with the people you worked with. You’ll be amazed at the number of times your careers and paths intersect again. 

Photo: Roger with Neal Denton at a Nats game

Q. What do you do for fun now? When I started down the glide path to retirement, my goal was to make a big shift in my work-life balance. Three years later, I’m much closer to the retirement destination and have been traveling with my wife of 44 years and spending time with our two adult children, their spouses and our five grandchildren. And I love going to Washington Nationals games, especially with former Red Crossers such as Neal Denton!

Q. What are you looking forward to in the near future?

We spent a long time saving and planning for retirement, and now I want to enjoy it with travel internationally and across the country as well as spend more time with friends and family.

Photo: Roger and Alexis in Amsterdam 

Q. Do you have a story of an issue or even an individual or family that you feel like you made a difference for in your Red Cross work? 

One example was a project that helped families of members of the military be better prepared for disasters, especially at times when their loved ones were

deployed. I helped distribute disaster preparedness kits to military families at Fort Belvoir in Virginia and a few months later at a base in Germany. This was a great example of a joint project between the Services to the Armed Forces and the Preparedness, Health and Safety teams. I remember families going from station to station gathering free Red Cross items for their kits. We did media interviews around the events and captured content for stories and social media, of course, but for me, it was even more enjoyable to be giving out the materials and talking to families as they built their kits.