Dr. Meghan Gibbons
Special Advisor to the President/CEO and Chief Storyteller
Ph: 202 744 9288
opens in a new windowmgibbons@aacc.nche.educreate new email
Dr. Meghan Gibbons is the special advisor to the president/CEO and chief storyteller for the American Association of Community Colleges. Operating at the intersection of narrative strategy, policy, and leadership communications, she brings more than two decades of experience at senior levels in public higher education.
As a speechwriter for fifteen years, Gibbons used her sophisticated storytelling skills to help five college and university presidents connect vividly with their students, faculty, staff, and constituents through creative communications including op/eds, videos, town halls, and social media. Previous to joining AACC, she was the president’s speechwriter at Montgomery College in Maryland for ten years, and deputy chief of staff for five years. She has also written full time for the lieutenant governor of Maryland and has ghostwritten for a current member of the U.S. Congress and multiple local elected officials.
In producing official public testimony and working for multiple principals, Gibbons has been immersed in the shaping of public policy on diverse topics such as veterans’ services, financial aid, unemployment insurance, transportation funding, the Dream Act, public-private partnerships, cyber-security and wind energy, among others. She brings years of experience navigating political protocols while driving strategic discourse through speeches and op/eds delivered at the local, state, and Congressional levels.
Gibbons’ role at AACC drives strategic thinking and messaging, and builds partnerships with external groups including think tanks, non-profits, and higher education associations. Her work also informs public policy and expands the impact of institutional planning. At the nexus of public discourse and higher education advocacy, she brings a sharp political acuity and deep knowledge of strategic framing that has enhanced leaders’ success at advancing their leadership priorities.
Gibbons’ teaching and research also brings an international perspective to AACC: She taught at an agrarian university in Ecuador for two years through World Teach, and spent several years living and working in Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, and Mexico, writing on the impact of grassroots groups on national narratives. In the U.S. she has taught undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University, Penn State University, and the University of Maryland. Writing under her own name has been published in the Washington Post, the Washington Post Magazine, The Nation, Bethesda Magazine, and she has contributed to three edited collections.
Gibbons holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Georgetown University and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Maryland.