Lowell Weiss has spent more than three decades sparking social change across a broad array of local, national and global issues. At Cascade Philanthropy Advisors, he provides personalized guidance to donors and boards seeking to deepen their impact and create meaningful change in the world.
Before that, he served in a leadership role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Among his many responsibilities, he served as staff director of the internal team responsible for providing Bill and Melinda Gates with insights on how best to steward Warren Buffett’s historic gift.
Before working for the Gates Foundation, he served as director of the chairman’s office at the Morino Institute. There, he served as Mario Morino’s right-hand man on all aspects of the institute’s operations and communications. He also served in the White House as special assistant to President Bill Clinton. In addition to traveling extensively with the president, he wrote more than 150 speeches for him and served as a key communications strategist.
He also previously wrote speeches for Vice President Al Gore; wrote a New York Times bestselling book with political consultant James Carville; served as an editor at The Atlantic Monthly; and published articles in The New Republic, US News & World Report, Washington Monthly, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Elle and other national publications. He graduated in 1990 from Amherst College with high honors.
He is an active volunteer. He serves as a trustee of the Northwest School; started a program that engaged more than 1,000 federal employees in tutoring public school students in DC; and led a successful citizen initiative to strengthen the state of Washington’s law on distracted driving.