Rebecca Gentry

Rebecca Gentry serves as the University of Houston’s Associate Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Leadership Gifts in the Division of Advancement and Alumni. She oversees the leadership/principal gifts program, including presidential engagement strategies, board and volunteer engagement, student philanthropy ambassadors, special projects and strategic planning, and serves on the Division of Advancement and Alumni’s leadership team and Centennial Celebrations Committee. She also manages fundraising and external engagement activity for the Centennial Master Plan and Systemwide Public Art Program. 

Rebecca joined the University of Houston in 2013 and was selected to participate in President Renu Khator’s inaugural cohort of leaders for the ProPel Leadership Program in 2019. She developed and managed the strategy, launch, celebration – as well as donor and volunteer engagement – for the University’s historic $1.24 Billion “Here, We Go” Campaign (2012-2020), its first in 25 years. 

Throughout her career, she has held executive advancement and campaign leadership positions in museums (Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design), historic homes (George Washington’s Historic Mount Vernon), non-profit organizations and foundations (National YoungArts Foundation) in Washington, DC, Atlanta and Miami. She has led programs in annual giving, campaign planning and management, integrated communications strategies, national and regional partnership development, board development and relations, donor relations and stewardship, events strategy and execution, and training.  

Rebecca received her bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University, where she currently is a member of the Alumni Council Executive Committee, and completed certificate work at the Reynolda House Museum of Art. She is active on local, regional and national boards and variety of charitable organizations, including Bayou City Arts Festival, Dress for Success Houston, His Grace Foundation, Junior League of Houston, Impact100 Houston, Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, Houston Alumnae Panhellenic Association, National Panhellenic Conference, Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary, Girls Inc. 

She is an alumna of Advancement Resources’ International Academy of Advancement Leaders Program, and a presenter for Academic Impressions and Rice University’s Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, as well as philanthropic industry committees, including the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for the Advancement and Support for Education (CASE). She is passionate about leadership theory and development, mentoring the next generation of colleagues, and the “art of the possible.”