When she was eight years old the family moved to Harrisonburg, where her father was the general manager and editor of the Daily News Record.

[2] As a teenager, she accompanied her father on late-night visits to the composing room and pressroom, her favorite parts of the newspaper, and filled in for vacationing proofreaders.

[3] When Rowe was named executive editor at The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star at age 36, she was one of only three women in the U.S. in the top position at a metro newspaper.

[12] After she retired from The Oregonian, Rowe accepted a Knight fellowship at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School for the 2010 and 2011 academic year[13] where she researched the case for partnerships and collaboration in local investigative reporting.

[15] Rowe chaired the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists based in New York from 2011 to 2017, a time period in which its work and the finances supporting the organization greatly expanded.

[25] CPJ received attention in October 2016 when in an unprecedented action, Rowe issued a public statement on the potential threat Donald Trump posed to free press.

As chairman, she initiated and led the board through redefinition of the mission, selection process and activities of the fellowships, changing from mid-career refreshment to a program defined by innovation and leadership in information businesses.