COVID-19 Genomic Epidemiology Toolkit Developer: Brian Lowe, MPP

Executive Director

Vermont Council on Rural Development

Brian Lowe, MPP, Brian Lowe, MPP, contributed to the COVID-19 Genomic Epidemiology Toolkit’s case studies with an evaluation of wastewater surveillance in a Vermont municipality to detect SARS-CoV-2 at the community level.

Brian Lowe was the COVID-19 Response Leader and Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Burlington, VT until June 4, 2021. During his tenure, he implemented a SARS-CoV-2 municipal wastewater surveillance system to include wastewater protocols as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian Lowe is now the Executive Director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. He holds a BA from Williams College, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and served for eight years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

“Wastewater surveillance is a powerful tool for providing an early warning system and helping address inequitable access to COVID-19 testing resources, allowing a community to shift valuable assets into neighborhoods that need them most and alert the population to changing risk levels. There is great potential in this approach beyond COVID-19, to help improve local understanding of infectious disease burden and beyond to potentially actionable information about nutrition or depression patterns. I am grateful for the CDC’s focus on this work.”