Photos by Ralph Freso/GCU News
Dr. Paul Gibbs has worked with data involving more than 50,000 students from K-12 to the university level, and he has a strong background in education policy and evaluation within Christian education.
That experience made him a good fit as the Canyon Center for Character Education's senior lead for mission and program integration.
“We threw him in the deep end, and he's been swimming very well, building great relationships and giving rich insights to our formation work,” said CCCE Executive Director Dr. Peter Anderson, referring to Gibbs' meeting with One Foundation officials on his first day. He also met with College of Theology Dean Dr. Jason Hiles, assessment team members and Assistant Vice President of Research and Grants Dr. Scott Greenberger.
Gibbs’ skill set and knack for navigating through a large institution, as well as understanding areas where character formation work is being done and how the center can "enliven those efforts and catalyze that work from our office" is going to be important, Anderson said.
Gibbs spent the last four years with Mesa Public Schools, the last two as senior program evaluator and lead for strategic research partnerships. He dealt with statistics ranging from attendance rates to engagement in college credit courses. He also spent a year as a research project coordinator at Arizona State University, where he earned his doctorate in educational policy and evaluation with the intent to return to Christian higher education at some point.
“I wasn't sure when that would be right,” Gibbs said. “And when I saw this particular position, bringing together so many of those strands within the larger category of the Christian worldview – which we didn't have at ASU – it was something that that God really used to make me decide to make the move.
“I really enjoyed my prior work, but the ability to do that within the context of a Christian institution, and to bring my whole person to work with me every day in a way that I just simply couldn't in the common school area, was just very appealing to me.”
Gibbs' hiring is the latest move by the CCCE, which is fostering Christian character formation in GCU's 10 colleges, Student Life, Athletics and throughout the university, thanks largely to a $10.7 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation.
Gibbs plans to further familiarize himself with GCU’s One Foundation team and ways it can expand the Christian worldview through “a lens of character and through the lens of the relationships that we share together.”
That is bound to plant the seeds for growing relationships with other people in building and supporting this formation work across GCU.
Gibbs already has observed that GCU has the infrastructore to implement programs and institutional change efficiently. And being on one campus, along with an online program of more than 100,000 students under the same infrastructure, increases the chances for those changes to occur.
“As a researcher, that's exciting to me,” Gibbs said. “I think there's a lot of really neat opportunities to dig into the psychology of human development through the Christian worldview and how the Christian vision for life shapes and directs that development. And how do we assess it? So there's a really great confluence of professional interest for me.”
Gibbs acknowledges that character formation is a firm pillar in the Christian worldview's contribution to serving the common good and advancing human flourishing.
“Character is the means that God uses to use his people as messengers, to draw others to himself,” Gibbs said. “If we can have the kind of character that we need to have, to help to restore relationships with God and with others through the ethos that we build together to be a part of that, is extraordinary.”
GCU is not foreign to Gibbs. His daughter, Robin, will graduate this spring from the university. Several members of Trinity Bible Church, which Gibbs attends, are familiar with GCU.
“We, as a church, have been enriched by the ministry of the university,” Gibbs said.
Hiring Becca Applegate as student program coordinator and Gibbs before the end of the school year enabled each of them to get acclimated to various groups. Two additional hires could be completed before the start of the 2026-27 school year.
“I'm grateful that the timing has worked so well, the cadence for bringing in new staff members. I'm hopeful for the next two positions, that the right person will come at the right time and jump right into the work, just like Paul and Becca, so we can keep serving the university together as a team,” Anderson said.
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
