Mr. Hibbard has taught at various schools in Illinois over the course of his career, all of them about the same size as Villa Grove. For much of that time, he has also taught dual-credit English Composition (though he has taught everything from high school freshmen to Master's degree students). An Illinois native, he graduated from Chadwick-Milledgeville High School, and is a graduate of both Monmouth College (Bachelor of Arts) and Western Illinois University (Master of Arts) with degrees in English. He has done additional study of writing and digital literacy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.