Home » UK Board of Trustees approves $6 Million gift to support future engineers from Eastern Kentucky

UK Board of Trustees approves $6 Million gift to support future engineers from Eastern Kentucky

Rebecca Liebert

LEXINGTON, Ky. — You could say, three p’s shaped Rebecca Liebert: planning, project management, and not procrastinating. For the University of Kentucky alumna, these qualities were instilled early in life. Planning for crops on her family’s farm in Eastern Kentucky, while managing schoolwork was no simple task.

Fast forward, Liebert, the executive vice president at PPG — a global manufacturer of paints, coatings, and specialty materials — attributes her successful career to leaning in on these three p’s. Now, she’s applying those same principles in a philanthropic commitment to the university.

Accepted by the UK Board of Trustees, Liebert’s recent donation of more than $6 million establishes the Dr. Rebecca Burchett Liebert Dean’s Fund in the College of Engineering.

Additionally, the fund will provide scholarship support to undergraduate students from Eastern Kentucky — with an emphasis on supporting female students and those who would strengthen UK’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

After earning her doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 1995, Liebert began her career as a development engineer with Nova Chemicals. As she held positions of increasing responsibility at Nova Chemicals, Liebert commuted from Pittsburgh to Chicago on weekends to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.