Dakota Gibbs, the Assistant Director of the Center of Innovation and Leadership, is a young professional from the Arts Nonprofit and Higher Education industry. Originally from Newark, NJ, Dakota developed a love and deep passion for the intersection of community, art, and urban populations. 

Dabbling in many art forms from theatre, dance to music, Dakota is no stranger to performing and producing performance art, including running bands, swing dancing, developing a local music scene and working on a solo album. During Undergraduate study at Swarthmore, Dakota majored in Economics and Philosophy, while exploring other interests including Ethnomusicology, Social Entrepreneurship, Improvisation, and Teaching Young Diverse Learners. 

While at Swarthmore, Dakota was vigorously involved in student life: being an RA, being an Intercultural Intern, running Multi - student affinity group (Including running and developing a undergraduate conference with Multi), running Ninjagrams - a day long flash improv Valentine's day card delivery service, running Sound Machine, the campus student band space and being the Admin to the Swarthmore Facebook Meme Page. 

Post-grad, Dakota worked for the CIL as an interim Administrative Assistant, but eventually left to join a small music education non-profit organization as music Instructor. Dakota quickly grew in the organization, teaching more classes, to joining the administrative side running marketing and project management, to running a program under the core program that oversaw all the student’s career, life, and academic goals. 

Dakota trained in and implantation of trauma-informed teaching, developed metrics to record student progress, and created detailed lesson plans focused on the needs of each student. Outside of work, Dakota can be found mostly in the gym, playing or streaming games, recording in his home studio or practicing in his basement. Now, Dakota is working with the CIL as the new Program Coordinator. He plans to bring in his fresh perspective and experience CIL while keeping up the fun atmosphere and eagerness for exploration and experimentation.