Bob Gilbert was raised in Ocean County, New Jersey but moved to Washington, D.C. to attend American University. He worked several political jobs in the nation's capital before moving to Minnesota in 1984 to manage a congressional campaign in Minnesota's 8th district which includes Duluth and the Iron Range. Instead of returning to Washington he remained in Minnesota where he worked as a waiter and a newspaper reporter. He returned to D.C. in 2011. An avid scholar, he loves the used book stores of Washington and the Twin Cities. He's also a backpacker who has led over a dozen trips for the Sierra Club to the mountain ranges of the far west. He's also trekked the Himalayas in Nepal three times in the past five years. He can be found on Twitter here: @BobGilbertDC.