Dan Gibbs (born c. 1976) is a politician in the U.S. state of Colorado. He currently serves as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
Gibbs worked as an outdoor guide and as a staffer for U.S. Representative Mark Udall before being elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2006. In the legislature, Gibbs was noted for his focus on transportation and environment issues in the state legislature, particularly in response the fire dangers posted by Colorado's mountain pine beetle epidemic — Gibbs is a volunteer wildland firefighter and has served fighting fires in Colorado and California.
Gibbs was appointed to a vacancy in the Colorado State Senate in late 2007, won election to a Senate term of his own in 2008, and represented a multi-county region stretching from the Colorado Front Range near Boulder into Rocky Mountain ski country west of Denver. Gibbs rose quickly to chair the Colorado Senate's Transportation Committee, but announced that he would seek election to a Summit County Commissioner seat in 2010 rather than run for another term in the legislature. Gibbs was elected a Summit County Commissioner in 2010 and served in that office until he resigned in January 2019.
Biography
Gibbs' parents were both public school teachers and later school principals; they divorced when Gibbs was young and he split his childhood between Gunnison, Colorado and East Lansing, Michigan. He was influenced at an early age toward public service after meeting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Gibbs earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Western State College, and then attended the University of Colorado at Denver, where he worked towards a graduate degree in political science.
Gibbs has worked in the timber industry, as a manager with a whitewater rafting company in Lake Luzerne, New York, and as an outdoor adventure guide in Gunnison, Colorado. As a local businessperson, he was a member of and diplomat for the Summit Chamber of Commerce, and was elected to their board for a three-year term in 2006.
An athlete and outdoorsman, Gibbs has competed in marathon and ultramarathon running races (including the Leadville Trail 100) and helped coach the Battle Mountain High School cross-country skiing team. He has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Eagle River Clean Up, and the I-70 Clean Up Team, and sat on the boards of Club 20, the High Country Conservation Center, the Vail-Eagle Valley Rotary Club, and Vail Valley Hospital Home Health/Hospice. He has cited being a volunteer youth mentor with the Buddy Mentors program as his most meaningful volunteer experience.
Gibbs worked in the Washington, DC office of U.S. Congressman Mark Udall before becoming the director for Udall's Western Slope office in Minturn in 2003. As a Congressional staffer, Gibbs sat on the Congressional Legislative Staff Association Board of Directors. He also helped launch the Summit County Young Democrats in 2004.
Legislative career
2006 election
Gibbs first ran for the state legislature in 2006 for a seat being vacated by Gary Lindstrom, who served as his campaign chair. Running for office at the age of 30, Gibbs faced criticism for his relative youth and inexperience, however, spending over $90,000 on his campaign — more than twice as much as Republican opponent Ken Chlouber, — Gibbs ultimately defeated Chlouber by a 2:1 margin. His constituency, House District 56, encompassed Eagle, Lake and Summit Counties, including the skiing communities of Vail and Breckenridge.
2007 legislative session
In his first year in the legislature — the 2007 session of the Colorado General Assembly — Gibbs sat on the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee and was Vice-Chair of the House Transportation and Energy Committee. That same year, Gibbs was also appointed to the Colorado Interbasin Water Compact Committee and the board of directors of the Colorado Tourism office.