Rebecca Gibbons

Rebecca Gibbons is the Director of Assessment & Evaluation at Malcolm X College, where she has been facilitating faculty-led assessment efforts since 2019. Previously, Rebecca served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tampa and the STEM Program Education Coordinator for the nonprofit organization Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful. By having worked in the non-profit sector and at both private and public institutions, she brings the perspective of these different spaces to her work in the community college environment. Rebecca is passionate about and dedicated to the power of the scholarship of assessment to generate cultural and institutional shifts toward improving student learning.

Rebecca has secured funding to support employability efforts through the Illinois Community College Board’s adaptation of Integrated Education and Training, which enabled students to progress through high school equivalency training to completion of the institution’s Certified Nursing Assistant program while serving their fellow students as Student Ambassadors hired by the college. She is part of a collaborative team between three Chicagoland institutions facilitating the Assessment Certificate Program, a series of workshops and projects that allow faculty and staff to hone their assessment skills. Around campus, she is a leader in the Race and Culture Committee, working to facilitate the sharing of stories, insights, and work being done to achieve equity. She is trained in equitable pedagogy and assessment through Black Lives Matter. Outside of the institution, Rebecca serves as the Associate Vice Chair for the Publications Committee of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education, where she works to publish the Association’s peer-reviewed research journal, Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning. She also serves on the Executive Board of the Chicago Area Assessment Group, hosting events to build community and support for assessment practitioners in the area.

Rebecca holds an American Chemical Society-Certified Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry from The University of Tampa and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Florida, where her research spanned the distribution of evidence-based instructional practices and the psychometrics of affective measures in postsecondary chemistry classrooms. She continues to publish scholarly work in the areas of assessment and chemistry education.