Robert L. Gibbs (born March 29, 1971) is an American political consultant and the current White House Press Secretary. Gibbs was the communications director for U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Gibbs, who has worked with Obama since 2004, was press secretary of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and has previously specialized in Senate campaigns, having served as communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and for four individual Senate campaigns, including those of Obama in 2004 and Fritz Hollings in 1998. Gibbs was also the press secretary of Representative Bob Etheridge. On November 22, 2008, Gibbs was announced as the press secretary of the Obama administration. He assumed the role of press secretary on January 20, 2009, and gave his first official briefing on January 22.

Gibbs was born in Auburn, Alabama on March 29, 1971. His parents, Robert and Nancy Gibbs, worked in the Auburn University library system and involved their son in politics at an early age. Nancy Gibbs would take Robert, then known as "Bobby," to local League of Women Voters meetings rather than hire a babysitter, and involved him in "voter re-identification" work at the county courthouse. Gibbs attended Auburn City Schools and Auburn High School. At Auburn High, Gibbs played saxophone in the Auburn High School Band, goalkeeper on the Tigers' soccer team, and participated on the school's debate squad. Gibbs graduated from Auburn High in 1989, in the same class as novelist Ace Atkins and mathematician and LEGO artist Eric Harshbarger.

Gibbs then attended North Carolina State University, where he majored in political science. From 1990 through 1992, Gibbs was goalkeeper for the North Carolina State Wolfpack soccer team. Gibbs graduated from North Carolina State cum laude with a degree in political science.