Bowdre was a law clerk for Judge Junius Foy Guin, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1982. Bowdre was a partner at the Birmingham, Alabama, firm of Rives & Peterson from 1982 to 1990. Beginning in 1989, Bowdre became a full-time Professor of law at Samford University Cumberland School of Law where she taught insurance law, legal ethics, and professional responsibility, and directed Cumberland’s legal research and writing program before her federal appointment in 2001.[2] Bowdre was first elected to Samford's board of trustees in 2008. She became chair of the board on September 9, 2023.[3]