President and CEO of the Avera Heart Hospital Michael Gibbs to give the Mount Marty commencement address

Michael Gibbs, president and CEO of the Avera Heart Hospital, will deliver Mount Marty University's commencement address to the undergraduate and graduate students on Saturday, May 2, 2026, on its Yankton campus. The ceremonies will take place in Cimpl Arena, with the undergraduate ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. and the graduate ceremony at 1 p.m.

Gibbs has served as president and CEO of the Avera Heart Hospital since 2017. He is also the co-leader of the Avera Cardiovascular Service Line, which delivers coordinated, high-quality care across Avera. Gibbs is in his second year serving as an adjunct professor of BioEthics in the Biotechnology Management Graduate Program at Mount Marty.

Gibbs’ Catholic faith journey began as an infant on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana, and continued through high school, where he became president of the Diocese of Wichita’s Catholic Youth Organization. He has served as a Eucharistic Minister, Mass Coordinator, and recently became a Benedictine Oblate at Sacred Heart Monastery.

He holds a Bachelor of Speech Communication from the University of North Dakota, a Master of Biomedical Ethics from Case Western Reserve University, and a Master of Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota, where he was bestowed with the Douglass Award for high merit and promise.

Gibbs has 26 years of experience in health care administration. He began in 2000 at Rapid City Regional Hospital, now Monument Health, as a postgraduate administrative fellow. He advanced to CEO in 2012 and left in 2016. Gibbs also held senior leadership roles at Gordon Memorial Hospital in Nebraska and Sanford Health in Fargo, North Dakota, prior to his time with Avera.

He advanced to Fellowship Status in the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2007. While at Sanford Health, Gibbs was named the American College of Healthcare Executives Early Careerist Awardee. During his time at Avera, he was the recipient of the American College of Healthcare Executives Senior-Level Healthcare Executive award.

Gibbs has held academic roles at the University of South Dakota School of Business, the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, and currently at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine and Mount Marty University.

In his commencement address, Gibbs plans to focus on the transformative power of listening, drawing inspiration from "The Rule of St. Benedict" and, specifically, the prologue's first sentence: “Listen … with the ear of your heart.” Gibbs said, “I am a Benedictine oblate, and it has been a gift for me, not just at work as CEO but as faculty at Mount Marty, to ‘listen with the ear of your heart.’”

For more information on Mount Marty’s commencement, visit mountmarty.edu/commencement.

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About Mount Marty University

Founded in 1936 by the Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery, Mount Marty University is South Dakota's only Catholic, Benedictine institution of higher education. Located along the bluffs of the Missouri River in Yankton, with additional locations in Watertown and Sioux Falls, Mount Marty offers undergraduate and graduate degrees focusing on student and alumni success in high-demand fields such as health sciences, education, criminal justice, business, accounting, recreation management, and more. A community of learners in the Benedictine tradition, Mount Marty emphasizes academic excellence and develops well-rounded students with intellectual competence, professional and personal skills and moral, spiritual and social values. To learn more, visit mountmarty.edu.