Stowers was one of seven candidates recommended to the Governor by the Alaska Judicial Council out of a record 25 applicants.

[2] After leaving the National Park Service he earned his juris doctor in 1985 from the University of California, Davis School of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif honor society.

In 2004, he left Clapp, Peterson and Stowers when he was appointed a Superior Court judge for the Third Judicial District in Anchorage by Governor Frank Murkowski.

[1][4] Before his appointment to the Supreme Court by Governor Sean Parnell in 2009, Stowers was president of the board of directors of Christian Health Associates.

He is also a former board member of the Alaska Natural History Association, Brother Francis Shelter, and Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center.