Matthew Gibson is the Executive Director of Virginia Humanities, a role he was appointed to in 2017, where he has led the organization's branding, visioning, and strategic planning efforts. He got his start in the digital and public humanities while pursuing his MA and PhD in English and American Studies at the University of Virginia, and in 1998 became assistant, and later associate, director of the University's Electronic Text Center. In 2005, he joined Virginia Humanities (then known as the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) to create and build Encyclopedia Virginia, and between 2008 and 2013 helped build a $2.5 million endowment to secure the editor's position and the project's future. As director of digital initiatives beginning in 2008, he served as principal investigator and director for three NEH grants and helped secure an organization-wide award from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for a two-year project engaging local communities on racism and bias in Virginia's historical narratives. In 2021, he led a fundraising and planning effort to relocate Virginia Humanities' offices and build the state's first public humanities center. He is an ex-officio member of the Virginia Association of Museums board, serves on Virginia's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission and Virginia's African American Cultural Resources Task Force, and is a member of the Federation of State Humanities Councils' Board of Directors, where he chairs the legislative committee.