Martin Lowery, who recently retired as the executive vice president of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has dedicated his career to consumer cooperatives with specific emphasis on rural electric cooperatives. He has been a board member of the Consumer Federation of America, the International Cooperative Alliance and the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition as well as a board member and chair of the National Cooperative Bank and the National Cooperative Business Association. He was inducted into the U.S. Cooperative Hall of Fame in 2016 and received the NRECA Clyde Ellis Award in 2018.
Lowery continues to be active in the cooperative movement both domestically and internationally with specific interest in cooperative principles and values and their applicability to grassroots inclusion and contemporary geopolitical issues. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Duke University, where he also taught undergraduate courses.
Throughout urban and rural America, cooperatives are thriving. Credit unions, housing cooperatives, energy, water, and telecommunications cooperatives, grocery cooperatives and, increasingly, healthcare cooperatives are providing basic services in their communities. Today, more than 1 in 3 Americans are receiving these
In late February 2025, I joined a cooperative studies tour of Costa Rica led by the International Centre for Cooperative Studies of St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Cooperative Management Program of Universidad FUNDEPOS in San
I travelled to Puerto Rico twice after Hurricane María struck the island, observing the near total destruction of the infrastructure and discussing the possibility of the development of renewable energy cooperatives as a component of a sustainable future. During those
In early December 2021, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the global apex organization for cooperatives, held its 33rd World Cooperative Congress in Seoul, Korea. Cooperators from around the globe participated both on-site and virtually. The theme of the Congress was
Stay up to date on the latest from our experts!
