COREY LOWE
Executive Director

As far back as those years when she was growing up in DeKalb County, Georgia – whose streets she would later patrol as a police officer – Corey Lowe has been all about helping people.

Her background is an amazing eclectic mix of service, from coordinating multi-million-dollar trade shows to organizing small-budget community- safety meetings, from an extensive law-enforcement career to lobbying the Georgia legislature to ensure patients in need of medical marijuana might find that relief.

Born in Atlanta, Ga on Friday October 13, Corey was deep into her career with CORT Trade Show Furnishings, where she took pride in maximizing the trade-show experience for her clients, when her life changed forever on Sept. 11, 2001.

Corey got all the 9/11 news from busy doctors and nurses in an Atlanta hospital, where she was preparing to give birth to her daughter Victoria Elizabeth. New motherhood changes anyone's life, but that's especially so when – within months – the joy of the new arrival is tempered with the diagnosis of epilepsy and mitochondrial disease.

The flexibility of being an entrepreneur seemed best for Corey and her growing family, so she established Angelic Cleaning and Pet Sitting, quickly building up a devoted client base who depended on her services.

Corey answered the call to a career in law enforcement in 2008, joining the DeKalb County Police Department to respond to 911 calls, co-ordinate community meetings and even earn several commendations for quick response in cases involving felony activity.

She soon returned to the police academy to assist with training exercises for new recruits and then moved on to the City of Clarkston Police Department. Here she focused on providing resources to victims of domestic violence, coordinating citizen safety classes for refugees, and became a Field Training Officer. She also became a National Passenger Safety Seat Technician, and took training in crisis intervention.

She left policing in 2013 in order to become an activist on behalf of children like Victoria.

At the time of her daughter's diagnosis, Corey joined such organizations as FOCUS, Lekotek and Parent 2 Parent of Georgia, through which she was able to teach classes to special-needs providers from a parent's perspective. She also served as co-chair of the DeKalb Interagency Coordination Council and as a board member for the Atlanta chapter of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.

This experience was excellent preparation when, in 2013, medical marijuana landed on her radar as an option to control Victoria's daily seizures.

She joined other parents in co-founding a group now known as Georgia's Hope to work toward the day that this medical option can be accessible to make a positive difference in the lives of all who need it.

Corey gives her Grandmother Betty a lot of credit for her compassionate nature. Years before Corey was born, when her mother was just a little girl in the 1950s, her grandmother was one of the few adults around who set the right example for her children in openly condemning segregation – at a time when it wasn't necessarily safe to do so.

Grandmother Betty would tell her daughters, “This is the way things are, but I want you girls to know that this isn't right.”

Corey's been blessed to learn from the best about true integrity and principle, and it continues to guide her now that she has grandchildren of her own.

That doesn't mean she's about to slow down. She is a contributing writer for Canna Health magazine and was most recently accepted as a speaker for the group known as L.E.A.P- Law Enforcement Action Partnership.

Most recently Corey has spoken about Victoria's journey with medical marijuana from Charlotte, NC. to Chicago, IL and she's looking forward to continuing to share her story where ever she's lead.

JUSTIN JONES
Deputy Director