GERALD W. GIBSON is Vice President-Dean at the College and Professor of Chemistry at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia. He received his B.S. degree (1959) in chemistry from Wofford College, and his Ph.D. degree (1963) from the University of Tennessee. He received a certificate (1983) from the Institute for Educational management at Harvard University.
Gibson chaired the chemistry department at the College of Charleston for fourteen years, and served there as associate provost. In those positions, and as vice president-dean of the college at Roanoke College, he has had extensive experience in hiring new faculty and in designing faculty development programs, both at the departmental and institutional level. The faculty development program at Roanoke, which begins with two terms of First-Year Faculty Sessions, has been marked by greatly expanded faculty scholarly activity, coupled with significantly improved student response to teaching. Gibson has made presentations at national and regional conferences on faculty evaluation, faculty orientation, the orientation of new deans, academic budgeting, curriculum, and costs of operating academic departments.
He has publications in chemistry, in poetry, and in higher education. His books include Mastering Chemistry (1975), Mastering Organic Chemistry (1979), and Mastering Chemistry Problems (1988) (with Gary C. Faber). His poems, several of which have won awards, have appeared in the Cape Rock Journal, The Cresset, Patches of Carolina Sunshine, and other publications.