Rich Stowell is the Director of Communications for Alpine School District in Utah. Serving 85,000 students in 92 schools, it is Utah’s largest school district.

Rich began his education career in the San Francisco Bay area as a founding teacher in two charter schools. After earning a master’s degree in mathematics education he enlisted in the US Army and took a role as a public affairs noncommissioned officer. He became inspired by the power of public relations and strategic communications and after two overseas deployments earned a PhD. in communications from the University of Utah. He has taught at the University of Utah and the University of San Francisco.

His work focuses on values-based communications and trust-building capacity. Based on his roles at Waterford Upstart, an in-home early learning software program, and at ParentGuidance.org, a school-supported mental health resource for parents, he began to study and write more about parenting and parent-to-child communication.