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Rebecca Bowen is responsible for executing national strategies to generate resources to support the Y's ability to strengthen community.

Before joining Y-USA in January 2016, she spent 15 years in conservation fundraising with Panthera, The Nature Conservancy and Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, honing her campaign experience with emphasis on gifts of $5 million and more. As Panthera’s first Chief Development Officer, Bowen created the team and fundraising plan to realize financial sustainability, including closing $80 million from the four founding members of The Global Alliance for Wild Cats.

From 2005 to 2014, she worked for the Nature Conservancy in Boston and Arlington, Virginia, as Director of Philanthropy for Massachusetts and Director of Principal Gifts, and then Principal Development Officer for the worldwide office. Bowen and her team created the first organization-wide pipeline for gifts of $5 million and up, resulting in a 30 percent increase in contributed revenue from that cohort in the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. She personally closed more than $75 million in gifts. Previous stops included the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and Sotheby’s Inc. in New York.