Howard Gentry

Howard Gentry served as Nashville’s first African American vice mayor and president of the Metro Council from 2002 to 2007. He was first elected as an at-large councilman in 1999. He has worked in a wide variety of positions throughout the Nashville business, education, media and nonprofit communities, including CEO of the nonprofit organization Backfield in Motion, director of athletics, director of development, and executive director of the TSU Foundation at Tennessee State University, longtime radio voice of the TSU Tigers, and host of the Howard Gentry, Jr. Sports Talk Show on WNSR-AM. He began his professional career in banking with positions at First American Bank and Citizens Bank before serving as a court officer and law clerk with the Metro Criminal Court Division I from 1987 to 1990.

Gentry earned his undergraduate (1974) and master's (1999) degrees from TSU. He has held volunteer positions with the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America, Alliance for Public Education, 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts and many others and was a mayoral appointee to the Mayor's Taskforce To End Chronic Homelessness.  He serves as president of the board of directors of the State of Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

Howard Gentry is now serving as chief executive officer of the Nashville Chamber Public Benefit Foundation and vice president of community action for the Nashville Chamber of Commerce