Senior program manager, Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC)
Rebecca Gray, senior program manager for the Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)
On the job: “Along with my four colleagues, my primary responsibility is management of our signature fundraising event, the Annual Prouty Bike Ride and Challenge Walk,” says Gray, who lives in Lyme, N.H. with her husband Ed, Dartmouth Class of 1967, Tuck 1971. Gray also supports NCCC fundraising efforts, helps manage public relations and marketing, and assists with board relations and development of the Friends group in Manchester, N.H.
Prouty season: “Right now I eat, sleep, and dream the Prouty, which is July 9 and 10,“ says Gray. “And I relish what we—with the help of incredible community support—are doing to raise funds for cancer research and patient services at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer.”
Transitions: “Even though I was laid off last spring from the position I’d had for the past seven years, and then applied for 10 positions at Dartmouth before being offered this one, it was a great ending for me because this was a job I really wanted and would have applied for anyway,” says Gray, whose Development position as assistant director of donor engagement and stewardship was eliminated in 2009 due to budget reductions. “I’d always been involved with cancer in the community. I had been on board of NCCC Friends years ago and I’m a cancer survivor. This was my avocation, mostly through volunteer work. So I really felt that it was serendipitous.”
In the kitchen: Gray is also a highly regarded food writer and cookbook editor; she recently served as an expert editor for the 75th anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking. She has written for publications including Saveur, Town & Country, Playboy, and Attaché, and is the author of 11 books on food including her bestselling Eat Like a Wildman and her latest release American Artisanal: Finding the Country’s Best Real Food, from Cheese to Chocolate. “My expertise is in cooking wild—my friend [the writer] P.J. O’Rouke refers to me as Martha Stewart with a shotgun. And yes, I really like to bird hunt and flyfish.”
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