Partner

Dreama Gentry
Executive Director
Partners for Education at Berea College

As executive director of Partners for Education, Dreama Gentry leads Berea College's educational outreach into Appalachian Kentucky. Partners for Education supports the educational aspirations of 50,000 students across eastern Kentucky using an annual budget of $40 million.

An Annie E. Casey Children and Family Fellow, Gentry also serves on the board of directors for the Fahe, a community development nonprofit, and the Pine Mountain Settlement School. She is a member of the equity coalition convened by the Pritchard Committee for Academic Excellence, which seeks to ensure Kentucky's school accountability system provides educational excellence to all students. Recently, she organized the annual Rural College Access and Success Summit, an event that brings together approximately 400 participants from across the country to improve the educational opportunities available to students from rural communities.

Gentry holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Berea College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky.

PFE serves rural communities by helping eliminate three barriers to educational success: programming gaps, capacity constraints and systems misalignment. By focusing partner organizations on shared student needs, PFE builds the practices, policies and funding alignment needed to disrupt persistent inequities in these communities. As a partner in the work done in these communities, TI is committed to targeting the programming gaps in STEM fields. Gentry discussed how this partnership has focused on shared student-centered goals to align actions and achieve success.

Who should attend:

• State education leaders in math, science, STEM, CTE and workforce
• Education service center leaders
• University and community college faculty
• School district leaders
• Community organizations focused on STEM
• Grant writers