Dr. Serena Lowe is currently the Senior Director of LTSS & Community Life at CareSource, focused on advancing cutting-edge technologies and high-impact home and community-based services that support people with complex health to live, work and thrive in their communities. Serena has spent the past 25 years furthering public policies that promote the socioeconomic advancement of low-income working families, individuals with disabilities, seniors, children, immigrants, refugees, women of color and other at-risk populations. Serena has served in a variety of leadership roles in the fields of public policy reform, systems change and commercial planning, working for a Fortune 100 global biopharmaceutical company, a top 20 national lobbying firm, two foreign governments, two national nonprofit organizations, Congress, and the federal executive branch.  

A recipient of the prestigious Harry Truman National Scholarship in Public Service, Serena has spent the majority of her career in public service, first as a senior legislative aide to two Members of Congress, and later as a Senior Policy Adviser for both the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Community Living (ACL).  Serena has worked with state Medicaid, workforce investment, vocational rehabilitation, housing, and education systems across the country on strategies to improve collaboration and coordination of resources in an effort to improve the social determinants of health and quality of life outcomes of people with disabilities and other complex health populations.

Prior to CareSource, Serena served as the Senior Policy Advisor at ACL and was the chief HCBS Liaison to CMS, responsible for working with all 50 state Medicaid agencies and their sub-operational entities on the implementation of the 2014 federal HCBS regulation; expanding community options through various Medicaid 1915/1115 authorities; aligning policies, practice and payment toward evidence-based person-centered models of service delivery; and co-leading the initial work behind the CMS HCBS Recommended Quality Measure Set. Serena has managed several federal technical assistance programs and policy initiatives, including the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (2012-2015), the National Center for the Advancement of Person-Centered Planning and Systems (2018-2019), and ACL’s Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center (2020-2021). Additionally, Serena has led two national not-for-profit organizations, serving as the first Executive Director of the Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination (CPSD), and later as the interim Executive Director of TASH (an international disability rights organization focused on inclusive and equitable communities for all people). 

Serena completed a B.A. in International & Public Affairs at Westminster College; an international studies program at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics; two graduate degrees (M.P.H. in International Health Policy and M.A. in International Development Policy) from George Washington University; and a PhD in Public Administration from American University.