Ilana Lowery

Ilana Lowery is the Arizona Director for Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that studies how media and technology affect children. In 2018, the 18-year-old child advocacy organization partnered with the Arizona Community Foundation, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, and the Phoenix IDA on a statewide digital well-being initiative that Ilana oversees.

Ilana is the former editor-in-chief of the Phoenix Business Journal, where she served for 23 years and previously held titles of editor and managing editor of the publication. She started at the Business Journal in 1995 as a reporter covering retail, finance, hospitality, airlines, and sports business.

Prior to the Journal, Ilana was an editor for Independent Newspapers Inc., a community newspaper chain based in Scottsdale. Before moving to the Valley in 1989, she worked as a reporter and editor for Pulitzer Newspapers in Chicago. She also was as an associate producer for the NBC-TV affiliate there.

A 1986 graduate of the University of Illinois, Ilana serves as an adjunct professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In addition, she is a steering committee member for the pet-therapy nonprofit, Gabriel’s Angels, and a member of the prestigious women’s professional associations Central Phoenix Women and Charter 100.

In 2015, Ilana was inducted into the Valley of the Sun Society of Professional Journalists Order of the Silver Key Society for her more than 25 years of dedication to the profession, and in 2014, she was named an Athena Award finalist by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.