Amelia Gibson, Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), graduate from the Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars (FES) program in a virtual ceremony hosted by the Carolina Center of Public Service on Dec. 11, 2020.

Gibson was part of Class VII of the FES program, which brings together select faculty from across campus for a two-year experiential, competency-based curriculum designed to advance their engaged scholarship.

“Community-engaged research takes time, training and support that is not the default or the norm in many academic spaces,” Gibson explains in the FES 2020 graduate bulletin. “It demands a flexibility and an openness to community values and needs (and schedules) that aren’t always prioritized by universities. The Thorp program helped me communicate those differences internally (to my department), supported me with time and funding to build community connections and welcomed me into a supportive, likeminded group of scholars.”

Gibson is director of the Community, Equity, Data & Information (CEDI) lab at SILS. Her primary research interests center on health information behavior and local communities and places as information systems. She is interested in the effects of place, space and community on the information worlds, information behavior, information needs and information access of traditionally marginalized populations, including people with disabilities and their families, and youth of color.

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