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Courtney Lowery, a University of Montana graduate and child of the new media world, teaches the Rural News Network class, a project that aims to connect UM students with rural Montana and get them up to speed with the online medium while helping small towns revive their newspapers online.

Along with professor Keith Graham, Courtney founded the Rural News Network in 2006 thanks to a grant from the J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. After a tiring semester for six brave students, the first town site in the Rural News Network was born in Courtney's hometown: The Dutton Country Courier.

The Rural News Network nicely blends Courtney's biggest interests and specialties: rural, online and citizen journalism. Her other job is being the editor in chief of NewWest.Net, a next-generation media company and online magazine covering the politics, economy, growth, landscape and culture of the Rocky Mountain West.

Courtney started her career as a teen panelist and writer for the Great Falls Tribune's Class Act page. From there, she found a home in the print program at the University of Montana's School of Journalism.

After several internships and five years at the Montana Kaimin, she found a love for political reporting covering the 2003 Legislature for Lee Newspapers under the tutelage of Charles Johnson and Jennifer McKee.

She then spent two years at the Associated Press, where she found a niche covering rural issues and the Western landscape, writing about topics like school consolidation, 6-man football, forest fires, public lands and agriculture.

In 2005, she found a gig that combined all of this: NewWest.Net. Courtney helped Jonathan Weber, the J-School's first Pollner Professor, start the company in Missoula in February 2005. She worked for more than two years as the managing editor before taking the reins as editor in chief in the summer of 2007.

Courtney is engaged to Jacob Cowgill, who is also a product of rural central Montana and now works in sustainable agriculture. Together, they have three cats —one tiny, two normal — and a hyperactive cattle dog.

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