Michael Gibbons
Biography
Michael Gibbons has worked internationally in social development since 1976. From 1976-79 he worked in rural development, agricultural extension and training of technicians in Sierre Leone, West Africa. In 1980, he served as a community organizer in the peace process in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From 1981-83, he was director of the U.S. Peace Corps agriculture/rural development training center in rural South Carolina, USA. Mr. Gibbons served as rural development officer for CARE in Bolivia from 1984-5, and provided training consultations to the government of Jamaica and Honduras. In 1986, he was appointed field office director for Save the Children US in Maldives and Sri Lanka, and served until the end of 1988, when he returned to SC headquarters. From 1989 to 1990, he acted as coordinator of international training and technical resources supporting SC's programs. During that time, he helped design SC's Woman/Child Impact program, which integrates community-level health, education, and economic interventions for the empowerment and development of women and children. Since 1991, Mr. Gibbons has served as SC's Senior Education and Capacity-building Advisor.
For 20 years, he has designed and supported innovative education and training activities in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the rural southern USA. These activities span such subjects as child development, parent education, maternal and child health, primary education, adult literacy, as well as non-formal education on school gardening, water and sanitation, community development, agricultural extension, and family life. Mr. Gibbons is completing his Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development, with an emphasis on education and social change, at the Fielding Institute, where he was elected to the Who's Who in Colleges and Universities in 1993. His dissertation centers on inter-institutional collaboration for child development and basic education in developing countries. In August 1998, he will begin a new job as associate director for the new Banyan Tree Foundation in Washington, DC, supporting NGO work in basic education in developing countries.
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