Gentry earned a master’s degree in materials engineering at the University of Dayton and has spent much of her career at Wright-Patterson, with stints at the Pentagon and elsewhere in Arlington, Va.
The IDO office she is leading will help the Air Force develop capabilities and “answer the Air Force’s most pressing force design needs,” AFMC Commander Gen. Duke Z. Richardson said earlier this year. The office “moves us toward a single integrated acquisition demand signal that will galvanize AFMC and strengthen DAF (Department of the Air Force) warfighting capabilities.”
The office will be based at Wright-Patterson and will have about 200 people, mostly from existing AFMC organizations. All of those positions are attached to Wright-Patterson, the command has said.
Only about 60 of those positions had been filled as of September, Gentry told the Dayton Daily News at the time, when she was the IDO stand-up lead helping to create the office.
Gentry comes to the job from a previous assignment as director of the Sensors Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is also headquartered at Wright-Patterson.
“I’m excited to be part of the IDO. I think it represents a huge leap in our ability to deliver capability to the warfighter,” Gentry said. “It’s not simple though. It’s a complex portfolio. We need to make sure all our systems are integrated, and if we get this right, we are going to change the Air Force.”
Gentry brings 23 years of experience to her role, with a background in leadership and engineering.
Her previous positions include management and technical roles within AFRL, the F-35 Joint Program Office, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the Secretary of Air Force’s Office for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
She has been a member of the Senior Executive Service, a cadre of senior civilian leaders, since 2021.
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