Gary D. Hibbs

Estate Planning Attorney

Gary Hibbs is an estate planning attorney who lives in Beltsville, Maryland. He is the father of four adult children—Anneliese, Taylor, Garlyn, and Nathanael—and four beautiful grandchildren.

Gary worships at Forcey Bible Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he is an active member of the worship team.

He grew up in Greenbelt as the fifth of six children of Ray and Shirley Hibbs. The family moved from the Philadelphia suburb of Haddon Heights, New Jersey, in 1964 to accommodate his father’s new job with NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center. Gary graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School and went on to earn his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park. He later earned both his J.D. and M.S.W. degrees from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1988 and passed the Maryland bar exam that same year.

Gary’s love for older adults began when his grandmother came to live with his family during his teenage years. His professional career launched in 1988 when he became an attorney with the Prince George’s County Area Agency on Aging’s Senior Law Project, after having served as an intern for Congressman Claude Pepper on Capitol Hill. He was particularly drawn to serving nursing home residents and their families and later became a licensed nursing home administrator and senior living operator. He served in various nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), most recently spending many years with Erickson Senior Living in executive leadership roles, including as Executive Director of Riderwood in Silver Spring, Maryland, the largest CCRC in the country.

Gary has a passion for helping people identify their purpose and develop their gifts and is the founder of Unleashed to Lead, LLC. As a certified speaker, coach, and trainer with John C. Maxwell, he coaches people on how to lead themselves well so they can lead others well. As he often says, “The hardest person to lead stares at me in the mirror every morning!”

Since 2016, Gary has served as an adjunct professor at UMBC’s Erickson School of Aging, teaching Aging and Management as well as the capstone course for UMBC’s Aging Services majors at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Gary previously served on the Board of Trustees for Adventist HealthCare’s White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring and currently serves as a trustee with the Healthcare Council and ShareSource, an affiliate of WellLink. Gary is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and is also affiliated with WealthCounsel and ElderCounsel, national networks of estate planning attorneys.