New chief diversity officer 查尔斯·E. 吉布森三世 embraces life behind the Red Brick Wall

查尔斯·E. 吉布森三世

查尔斯·E. Gibson, III centers his work on several guiding principles. One of them is educational equity. 另一个是恩典.

“Grace is actually central to my professional practice,吉布森说。, who started as Randolph’s chief diversity officer in April. “We all come into this world with no say about the culture we’re born into. We grow and develop and navigate through it in the best way we know how. 没有人知道所有问题的答案. So when you are in fellowship with someone or you’re communicating with them, you need to afford them the same grace they afford to you.

“That’s really how I like to begin difficult conversations,” he added. “That’s something else I’m going to emphasize here, interaction with difference. We want people to be culturally competent and able to interact with other cultures without fear. And we want them to know how to do it appropriately.”

A liberal arts environment—where “there is intentionality behind introducing students to a variety of academic disciplines”—is the ideal place to foster those skills, 吉布森说.

“Students are able to have a wide range of perspectives from which to view things,” he added. “Those conditions really allow for the cultivation of critical thinking in a way that’s unique. That’s really important—allowing people to develop the ability to critically analyze, to not take things at face value. 重点是对话.”

从四月开始, Gibson has jumped right into life behind the Red Brick Wall, attending events and getting to know students.

His passion for the field began while he was a student at Wake Forest University, where he served as a student leader in the university’s judicial affairs office.

Gibson was planning to go to law school when a conversation with Barbee Oakes, Wake Forest’s first chief diversity officer, 激起了他的兴趣.

“She asked if I’d considered going into higher education,吉布森说。, who graduated from Wake Forest with a bachelors’ degree in music and a minor in English. “I hadn’t, but I took it under advisement. Then, my senior year, she advocated for me in a way that left an indelible impression. 它真的很强大. I wanted to do that for other people.”

Twenty years later, Gibson still has a letter Oakes wrote on his behalf.

“Whenever I have high points or low points in the job, 我把那封信拿出来, 它把我带回到过去,他说. “It reminds me, ‘This is why you’re doing this.’”

Gibson earned his Master of Arts and Education Specialist degrees in higher education from Appalachian State University. He also received a Master of Education degree in higher education from Penn State, where he worked in the Office of 研究生 Educational Equity Programs for five years.

He went into consulting work after that, before returning to higher education as Lees-McRae College’s inaugural chief diversity officer in 2021.

“I wasn’t fulfilled in the corporate space,” 吉布森说. “我是一名承包商. It just felt like I was doing a disservice to myself by my purpose being for a corporation to meet its bottom line. 就是感觉不对.”

The job at Lees-McRae also brought him home, in a sense. 位于班纳麋鹿, 北卡罗莱纳, Lees-McRae sits in the Appalachian Mountains, not far from where his father grew up near Asheville.

Gibson credits his multicultural family for providing the foundation for the work he does every day.

“I feel like it was some sort of divine ordering because I come from a very diverse family,吉布森说。, whose father is African American and mother is Mexican-American. “A lot of the skills I have developed over the years, I’ve inadvertently done just to interact with my family and get to know them better. I had to get skilled navigating through different cultures, but I never imagined I would call on those skills professionally like I do now.”

吉布森在英曼公园长大, 亚特兰大的一个历史街区, 乔治亚州, where his family still operates a bed and breakfast.

Driving down Rivermont Avenue feels eerily similar to his old neighborhood, and the mountain views bring him a sense of peace.

“我的家人是非洲人. We are black people from the foot of the Appalachian Mountains,他说. “To be able to look out to the west and see the range, again, just felt right. Then I met the people of Randolph. It’s clear they are all driven by the same thing, which is to help students realize their potential.”

The students are why he does what he does.

“A lot of people have preconceived notions about what my work entails and who I serve,他说. “My goal is for everyone to see themselves in the work.”