Sara Lowther began her public health career at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, where she completed a Master of Public Health degree while serving as a project assistant in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) HIV/AIDS Surveillance Branch. After graduation, Sara served as fellow at CDC, providing surveillance coordination for the Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch. This work solidified her interest in pursuing doctoral studies in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. After completing her doctorate degree, Sara began her career with the United States Public Health Service in July 2008 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer assigned to the Minnesota Department of Health. Following EIS, she worked as a research scientist in the Division of Viral Hepatitis and, in 2011, moved to the Global Immunization Division (GID). Sara was an integral member of the CDC Kenya Country Office, first serving as GID’s program director for polio and immunization activities, and then becoming the Division of Global Health Protection’s (DGHP) Resident Advisor for the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). She returned to Atlanta in 2019, bringing her expertise and country experience to her leadership role in DGHP.
When she passed away, she was acting lead of the Epidemiology Technical Support Unit for the FETP Team in the Workforce and Institute Development Branch. Sara was passionate about FETP as a means to develop and mentor young field epidemiologists around the world and build global field epidemiology capacity.
Infectious disease prevention and training future public health leaders were causes important to Sara throughout her career. The Sara Lowther Memorial Fund will support an award for a FETP fellow or recent graduate to conduct a project that makes significant contributions to infectious disease prevention and control in their country. The award will be presented annually at International Night during the EIS conference. Support the Sara Lowther Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Memorial Fund.
