Lee Sentell is one of the most respected tourism professionals in the state of Alabama. Between 1991 and his current appointment, Sentell served as tourism director for the Huntsville Convention and Visitors Bureau in north Alabama. In that role, he was responsible for the tourism and convention marketing and advertising of one of the state’s largest destination marketing organizations. He also developed a $4 million Huntsville Visitor Center scheduled to open in late 2003.

Prior to that job, Sentell served for 10 years as director of marketing for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center where he directed a staff of 30 and a marketing budget of $3 million. He also established the marketing programs for the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Space Camp-Florida near Kennedy Space Center and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

He was the first paid tourism staff member ever hired by the Decatur Chamber of Commerce.

Before working professionally in the tourism industry, Sentell worked for 12 years as a reporter, business editor and later city editor at the Decatur Daily, a family-owned newspaper in north Alabama.

Sentell was inducted into the Alabama Tourism Hall of Fame in 2000 and has past service as president of the Alabama Travel Council and as chairman of the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel Advisory Board.

He graduated from Auburn University where he studied communications and served as managing editor of the campus newspaper, the Auburn Plainsman.

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