Annie Gibson

For more than two decades, I have directed global education at Tulane, overseeing a portfolio of more than 200 programs across 60 countries and supporting over 1,500 students annually. That work runs through institutional complexity, student crises in remote locations, and constant decision-making across language, culture, and competing stakeholders. I have navigated it in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. What that career taught me is that leadership challenges are rarely about not knowing what to do. They are about reading what is actually happening between people and moving through it with clarity.

I am an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach (PCC), a Certified Executive Coach from the Center for Executive Coaching, and a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. At Tulane, I serve as Director of Study Abroad and Administrative Associate Professor in Newcomb-Tulane College. I partner with leaders navigating intercultural dynamics, organizational complexity, and career transitions who want to lead more intentionally across difference.

I coach leaders to build clarity, adaptability, and grounded confidence when they are navigating change, cross-cultural dynamics, and the competing demands of complex systems.

My coaching draws on the Intercultural Development Inventory, reflective inquiry, and high-impact dialogue to help clients surface the patterns shaping their situations before moving to action. As an IDI Qualified Administrator, I bring a structured, assessment-backed lens to intercultural dynamics that most coaches can only describe in general terms. Clients have told me: "You helped me see what was actually happening, not just what I thought was happening," and "I finally understood why the same dynamic kept repeating." I bring warmth and directness. I hold space and I challenge assumptions. I do not let clients stay in reflection when action is available.

I have spent years in contexts where the rules are unwritten and the cultural lens you bring determines what you see. Leaders routinely misread situations because they are applying one frame to a context that requires another. I help them slow down long enough to read what is actually there, and then move with precision.

My coaching focus areas include intercultural effectiveness and cross-cultural leadership, leadership development and executive presence, navigating organizational complexity and ambiguity, communication and conflict navigation, and team dynamics and resilience.

I hold an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential, a Certified Executive Coach (CEC) from the Center for Executive Coaching, a Tulane Leadership Institute certification, and a Qualified Administrator credential for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI QA). I earned my PhD in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and my BA in Spanish and Portuguese Languages with a minor in Latino Studies from Dartmouth College.

Outside of work, I dance and play music with Brazilian and Cuban communities in New Orleans and continue to play soccer in an adult league. My longtime curiosity about nonverbal communication and how language confirms or liberates us from privilege travels with me into every coaching conversation.