By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Stuart Lowrey, Regional Security Advisor for the Jewish Federation of Louisville
A veteran of three decades in Federal law enforcement has been tapped as the Louisville area’s Regional Security Advisor, after a robust search by the Jewish Federation of Louisville.
Stuart Lowrey, who spent 32 years with the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officially began his RSA tenure on April 24. His role grew out of SAFE Louisville, an initiative launched four years ago to “address the troubling trends associated with a rise in antisemitism.”
“Under the auspices of the Jewish Federation Board, the SAFE Louisville committee identified the need to hire a full-time safety and security professional, a “Regional Security Advisor,” to advance our community’s safety and security plan,” a Federation statement explained.
“Like many Jewish communities throughout America,” SAFE Louisville co-chair Bill Altman said, “we partnered with Secure Community Network (SCN), the national safety and security affiliate of Jewish Federations of North America, to source, evaluate, hire and provide guidance to the RSA we hire. The position is jointly shared between SCN and JCL.”
Lowrey’s hiring reflects sobering realities, and a commitment to do what’s necessary to address those challenges. “We all live in a world where not a day goes by without a question or discussion related to safety and security,” said Sara Klein Wagner, President and CEO of the Trager Family JCC and the Jewish Federation of Louisville.
Lowrey retired from the ATF in 2020. Over the last year, he’s been Regional Security Manager, Corporate Security and Investigations, for U.S. Bank in Chicago, responsible for more than 175 retail and corporate locations.
His RSA job marks a return to a city where he spent a sizable chunk of his career. From August 2012 to October 2015 – and again from October 2016 to September 2019, Lowrey was Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Louisville Division, with jurisdiction over 15 offices principally in Kentucky and West Virginia, and the Indiana counties just across the Ohio River from Louisville.
“I was very happy with the opportunity I saw at the bank,” Lowrey said during a recent Zoom interview from his home in suburban Chicago. “But I still have, I would say, a very strong public-service orientation.”
A similar impulse prompted Lowrey – who’d graduated from the Southern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting – to join the ATF as a Special Agent in the Chicago Field Division. From there his career ascended steadily through the agency: in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and a seven-year-plus stint as second in command in New Orleans, where he had a key role in responding to Hurricane Katrina.
Further senior ATF positions awaited him, culminating in the post of Acting Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Management in Washington. He’s married with two grown children.
While at the ATF,, Lowrey was broadly proactive and reactive: anticipating where threats might arise and responding to incidents when they occurred. He will draw on many of those same skills as RSA in Louisville.
“I’m going to be involved in a variety of capacities,” he said, such as “physical security-type reviews, facility and risk assessments and helping identify potential solutions.” Additionally, he intends to have a central role “in the development and delivery of various types of training, again, that help the community at large be more prepared, and act should something happen.”
Just as with the ATF, where Lowrey routinely shared information with other agencies, as RSA he’ll be “developing and sharing intelligence information – not only in the (local) community, but with others outside. And of course, in any critical incident, collaborating with law enforcement in various ways. So, I think it’s a pretty diverse role.”
Crucially, “I’ll be engaging with various segments of the Jewish community in Louisville, but also outside, as part of their outreach efforts and things of that nature.”
“The Jewish community has coalesced over the past four-and-a-half years around SAFE Louisville, which is a unique effort,” Wagner said. “I could not be more grateful to our co-chairs, Bill Altman and Ben Vaughan, for their leadership. I’m looking forward to working with our new RSA, Stuart Lowrey, and to the expertise and thoughtfulness he will bring to this role.”
