Interviewee
Shepard "Shep" Lowman
Interviewer
Paul Hillmer
Document Type
Oral History
Date of Interview
2-26-2008
Abstract
Mr. Shepard “Shep” Lowman graduated from Harvard Law School and later attended the Graduate School of Public Administration focusing on Economic Studies. In 1974 he was a political officer at the United States Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. After the fall of Saigon, he assisted with the evacuation of Vietnamese in Saigon and was later given the "Superior Honor Award" for his tireless efforts. After 1975, he dedicated his time to Asian communities, working as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asian Refugees under the Bureau of Refugee Programs in Washington, D.C. During his six-year term Mr. Lowman developed and managed programs that assisted in the resettlement of 168,000 refugees per year in the U.S., including tens of thousands of Hmong. Once again, he was awarded the "Superior Honor Award" for his creative management response to crisis. He is currently a board member of Refugees International Emeritus and works as an independent consultant. Mr. Shep Lowman currently resides with his family in the state of Virginia. In 2005, he was recognized with the National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
Our time together was limited. While Mr. Lowman’s work in Vietnam alone could have been discussed for several hours, we focused the time we had on his work in Washington, D.C. on behalf of refugees.
Addendum: Mr. Lowman died in 2013. Here is an appreciation by a former colleague: http://www.afsa.org/sites/default/files/flipping_book/0613/files/assets/basic-html/page41.html
Copyright
Some rights reserved. Others may copy, distribute, display, or perform verbatim copies of this work with attribution to the author and original source information cited. No modification, remixing, or adaptation of this work may be created without the written permission of Dr. Paul Hillmer, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Concordia University, St. Paul or the Concordia University Library and Archives.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Hillmer, Paul, "Interview with Shepard "Shep" Lowman" (2008). Hmong Oral History Project. 31.
https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/hmong-studies_hohp/31