“I always had this fantasy of doing civil rights and equal employment opportunity law,” says Gibbs, director of the office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Gibbs — who grew up in Fauquier County, Va., at a time when segregation was still prevalent and in a town where many public establishments still closed their doors to African-Americans — credits her parents, who were strong advocates of education, for being the force behind their children’s paths to becoming first-generation college graduates.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia during a time of racial transition, Gibbs was one of only 5 percent of African-Americans who attended the university. While there, she was active in the movement to advocate for increased diversity among faculty members.
