Dreama Gentry
A proud Appalachian with no desire to live anywhere else. First in the extended family to attend and graduate from college. A hope dealer who unabashedly brings the voice of rural children and families into every room.
Dreama Gentry is founder and CEO of Partners for Rural Impact (PRI), a national intermediary that mobilizes rural leaders, strengthens capacity of rural organizations, and activates policy makers and philanthropic partners to ensure the 14 million children and youth living in rural America are on a path to upward mobility. Partners for Rural Impact has eight offices across the country, 350+ employees with an annual budget of $60+ million.
Dreama is the architect of the nation’s first rural Promise Neighborhood, and the designer of a rural-focused Full Service Community School model built upon the essential framework of community schools. PRI has implemented and sustained four rural Promise Neighborhoods in Appalachian Kentucky and is operating more than 130 Full Service Community Schools in rural areas of Kentucky, Texas and Missouri.
A graduate of Berea College and the University of Kentucky College of Law, Dreama serves on the Economic Mobility Alliance Steering Committee and the National Comprehensive Center Advisory Board.
Dreama has deep roots in rural Appalachian Kentucky. Her family arrived in Harlan County 200+ years ago. They left Harlan under interesting circumstances and settled in Crab Orchard, Kentucky 120+ years ago. Dreama and her husband, Hasan Davis, have lived in Paint Lick, KY for more than 20 years. They are the extremely proud parents of Malcolm, founder of Affrilachian Arts, and Christopher, who is completing a degree in cybersecurity leadership from South Dakota State University.
Dean Jacobs
Since 2001, Dean Jacobs has been traversing the globe exploring over 52 countries on a low-budget adventure, propelled by a desire to understand the world. He was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, spending his early years living on a farm. When he was five, his family moved to Fremont, Nebraska where he resides today. Growing up in the Midwest has given him a great appreciation for the simple things in life. Dean graduated from Wayne State College, earning a degree in biology, with minors in earth science and art.
Eventually, this path led him to Pfizer Pharmaceuticals where he was employed in sales/marketing for 10 years. After a great deal of soul searching, Jacobs left the security of corporate America and decided to pursue other dreams. This was the beginning of a process that would lead to a traveling adventure that would span 22 months and cover 28 countries.
Taking photos became a natural expression of the journey for Jacobs as he documented the common ground of our humanity. Since this beginning, Jacobs’ travels have led to working for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other adventures have taken him on journeys to explore the Nile in Africa, the Amazon of South America, and the Trans-Siberian railway of Asia.
These days, when Jacobs is not traveling, he keeps busy as a contributing newspaper columnist, photojournalist, children’s book author, and keynote presenter across the country.
