Dr. Jo Ann Chavis Lowery
Recipient of the 2025 North Caroliniana Society Award
A highlight of the Society’s year is the presentation of
the North Caroliniana Society Award
for long and distinguished service in the
encouragement, production, enhancement, promotion,
and preservation of North Carolina.
~ February 2024
On April 13, 2025, the 2025 North Caroliniana Society Award will be presented to Dr. Jo Ann Chavis Lowery on the campus of UNC Pembroke. Following the Society’s Annual Membership Meeting, there will be an afternoon program honoring Dr. Jo. Alexis Raeana and Mark McKinney & Co. will perform.
The Board of Directors voted to award the fifty-sixth North Caroliniana Society Award to Dr. Jo Ann Chavis Lowery, a deeply revered Lumbee tribal elder, counselor, historian, and longtime educator whose quiet grace and wisdom moves all who meet her.
About the Recipient
Dr. Jo Ann Chavis Lowery
is the twelfth child of thirteen born to Ulysses Preston and Lena Oxendine Chavis of the Bear Swamp community in Robeson County. Dr. Lowery attended segregated public schools in the county before launching into a distinguished career in higher education, beginning with a BA in English from Pembroke State University, a master’s in counseling from Appalachian State, and a doctorate in counseling from UNC Greensboro.
She and her husband John Lewis Lowery raised three children—the late John Kareem, a scientist; Mary Orinda, a college math professor; and Steve Fuller, who works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior. The Lowerys have four beloved grandchildren.
Dr. Lowery is a lifelong member of the historic Bear Swamp Baptist Church, where she has served in many capacities. When there is community work to be done, Dr. Jo is always there.
Professionally, Dr. Lowery has been an Adjunct Counseling Professor at Campbell University and UNC-Pembroke. She taught high school English and was the school counselor at two K-12 schools, a middle school, and a high school. She was also a supervisor, grant writer, and coordinator with the Public Schools of Robeson and was deeply involved in the development of a curriculum in Indian History for the county schools.
Her local awards include the Saddletree Jaycees’ Teacher of the Year and Secondary School Counselor of the Year for Public Schools of Robeson. In a wider arena Dr. Lowery was the recipient of a National Award from the American School Counselor Association and served as a Reader for the Office of Education in Washington, DC.
Dr. Jo, as her Lumbee sisters call her, has shared her life story on stage as the senior cast member in a theatre production of “LumBEES–Women of the Dark Water: A Memoir with Music,” first directed by Bo Thorp in 2019 and presented at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre and reprised in 2022 for enthusiastic audiences at UNC Pembroke, directed by Dr. David Oxendine.
Dr. Lowery served as Elder in Residence for the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education and was most recently named the Lillian Strickland Elder of the Year for the national Native sorority Alpha Pi Omega. She has served as President of the Pembroke Elders of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and at the 48th annual NC Indian Unity Conference, Dr. Lowery was recognized with the United Tribes Distinguished Service to the Indian Community for her years of commitment to the Lumbee people.