Dr. Youlanda Gibbons currently excels as the chief executive officer and founder of The Partnership for Inclusion Leadership, a women-owned business that values the significance of diversity and inclusion principles. Having founded the organization following her tenure as a diversity strategist for the Department of Commerce Census Bureau, where she served from 2013 to 2020, she previously thrived in a myriad of related roles. To this end, Dr. Gibbons served as a diversity and inclusion subject matter expert, a senior consultant and a social scientist for Curtis Lewis & Associates, P.C., between 2007 and 2011. In 2011, she founded the Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation in Government initiative.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Gibbons also served as a faculty member at Georgetown University beginning in 2005, thriving as an assistant professor and being honored for instructional excellence in 2009. Following this, she was appointed to serve as an affiliated Georgetown University Scholar. Over the course of her career, she also lent her expertise as an instructor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an adjunct professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. In accounting for her own achievements, Dr. Gibbons holds numerous academic credentials, including a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in sociology and a Master of Education, all from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Furthermore, she received a Master of Science in public health from Harvard University, a Master of Social Work from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and human development, cum laude, from Mercer University.
Throughout her extensive career, Dr. Gibbons is particularly proud to have made recommendations to the Secretary of Defense during her time with the United States government. To wit, she served as an advisor and aided the department in prioritizing instructional policies and realigning military education and training protocols. Leveraging her advanced understanding of diversity and inclusion, Dr. Gibbons further introduced competency-based approaches to redefine military leadership training and development through the Department of Defense Center of Excellence.
As a testament to her success, Dr. Gibbons has been bestowed with several accolades, most recently including the Women Worth Watching Leadership Award and Black Leadership Award from the Profiles in Diversity Journal in 2022. The same year, she also earned Stevie Awards for Achievement in Thought Leadership Bronze Award and Women of the Year in Government Bronze Award. In 2021, she accepted the Power the Future Award from The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, among many other honors. In the coming years, Dr. Gibbons intends to continue excelling in her career.
