A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Gibson earned a bachelor's degree cum laude from Duke University in 1972 and a law degree with high honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1976.
She worked in private practice from 1978 until 1983, when she joined the University of North Carolina School of Law as an associate professor.
[1] On October 26, 2000, on the recommendation of Sen. John Edwards, President Clinton nominated Gibson to a vacancy on the Fourth Circuit that was created by the death the previous year of Judge Samuel James Ervin III.
[2] "The good thing for me is I have a job right now that I love," Gibson told the Raleigh News and Observer in an article that was published on October 28, 2000.
Gibson is married to University of North Carolina law professor Robert Mosteller.