Lee Sentell serves as a member of the Cabinet of Governor Robert Bentley and has been director of the Alabama Tourism Department since 2003. Travel expenditures by Alabama visitors have increased by 93 percent during his tenure. The agency has won numerous marketing awards, including multiple awards from the National Council of State Tourism Directors for the department’s “year of” campaigns. The agency won a national Addy Award for book design in 2016. Lee previously was director of marketing for the Huntsville Convention & Visitors Bureau and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. He was the first director of the Decatur Tourism Bureau after writing for The Decatur Daily for a decade. He’s a native of Ashland and a graduate of Auburn University.