[6] Sekula-Gibbs graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas[7] with summa cum laude honors and a degree in chemistry.

[10] Sekula-Gibbs taught at Ben Taub Hospital and served as a clinical assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, both in the Texas Medical Center.

Sekula-Gibbs won election to the At Large, Position Three on Houston City Council in 2001 as Shelley Sekula-Rodriguez, from her marriage to the late TV newscaster Sylvan Rodriguez.

[citation needed] Sekula-Gibbs resigned her seat on the Houston city council on November 8, 2006, following her victory in the special election to fill the two-month unexpired term of Tom DeLay.

A special election was held to fill her Council seat in May 2007; in runoff voting Democrat Melissa Noriega won the position.

[12] House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who had represented Sekula-Gibbs's area of residence since it was redistricted into DeLay's district (see 2003 Texas redistricting) and was under indictment for conspiracy charges ─ of which he was acquitted in 2013,[13] affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 1, 2014[14] ─ decided to retire from Congress instead of face a tough re-election campaign in the following November.

The courts ruled that replacing DeLay's name, especially after winning the state primary, violated Texas election laws.

The main counties in the district, Fort Bend, Galveston and Brazoria voted 61% for Bush and 38.5% for Kerry and the remainder to a third-party candidate.

The Dallas Morning News noted that on the electronic machines used in District 22, voters would have to spell out any write-in candidate's name by using a wheel to move a cursor through the alphabet.

On October 30, 2006, a poll was released that was conducted by John Zogby and sponsored by the Houston Chronicle and KHOU, intended to gauge support for the various candidates in the district race.

[34] Gibbs' campaign manager in the 2008 primary was conservative activist Clymer Wright, father of the municipal term limits movement in Houston.

[39][40] Sekula-Gibbs defeated Cooke and Gupta by receiving 48.43% of the vote, outpacing her nearest rival by nineteen percent.

[43] Dr. Sekula-Gibbs won reelection to the Board on November 7, 2023, pulling ahead of opponent Tricia Danto with 51.38% of the vote.

[44] Sekula-Gibbs has served as alternate chairman of the One Water Task Force and on the Visit The Woodlands board of directors, the Parks and Recreation advisory council, audit, budget, and investment committees.

She successfully lobbied for the creation of the new Upper Watershed position on the San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group.

[45] In the arena of transportation, Sekula-Gibbs is the township's representative on the Conroe/The Woodlands Urbanized Area (UZA) Transit Advisory Committee, where she currently serves as chairman.