SHERRY GIBBS
Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology
Dean Gibbs joined Galen University in 2008 as an adjunct lecturer in the newly formed Anthropology program because of her background in Biological Anthropology. Due to her constant presence on campus and additional courses to teach, she eventually became an Assistant Professor in 2011. She then worked to expand the program’s scope to meet the students’ and Belize’s demands and needs. Dean Gibbs teaches various biological anthropology courses within the Anthropology program and courses within the General Education Core Curriculum, such as Social Problems and World Regional Geography. She co-created the Forensic Anthropology course with a Forensic Anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis. Along with Osteoarchaeology, these two courses form an intensive summer program for Galen and international students.
Sherry now serves as Dean in the Faculty of Arts, Science, and Technology, a role she assumed in 2018. Dean Gibbs studied Archaeology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. She completed her Master in Art in Anthropology (Bioarchaeology) at Trent University, Ontario, focusing on the skeletal assemblage at Actun Tunichil Muknal archaeological site. During that time, she was also a staff member of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project conducting research in the Roaring Creek River Valley.
Upon completing her graduate degree, she worked in cultural resource management with various institutions in various states in the United States, including a mortuary cave in California and a cemetery in East Texas. She continued doing cultural resource management work throughout Belize. Dean Gibbs also volunteered with a Guatemalan human rights organization assisting in analyzing human remains from a clandestine grave in Guatemala highlands. Sherry oversaw the excavations and conservation work at the archaeological site of Caracol, Belize as a staff archaeologist for the Tourism Development Project. She has contributed significantly to the bioarchaeological corpus of literature in west-Central Belize and has authored numerous archaeological reports from Belize and Texas.
Sherry is passionate about education, having developed the current Anthropology degree offerings at Galen University. She has impacted the development of archaeology and anthropology in Belize for over a decade through her guidance and mentorship of students and the founding of the Galen University Anthropology Club.
As Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology, she works closely with experts in various sectors to ensure the other dynamic FAST programs serve our students and the nation. Culture – our learned behaviour – is fluid and dynamic, constantly shifting in response to external and internal influences. Through her efforts at Galen University, Dean Gibbs seeks to remain flexible and adaptable to ensure that the Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Environmental Science, Computer Science, and Veterinary Technician programs are always responsive to the current needs of our society.