Dixon is new MU chief diversity officer

Michael Dixon has been named chief diversity officer at Manchester University.

Director of Intercultural Services, Dixon has been a member of the University Diversity Committee for a year and will now be its leader.

“Michael has long been engaged in the work that the committee as a whole will undertake: making Manchester a welcoming community for all and equipping us to learn from the many diversities found at Manchester,” said President Dave McFadden, as he made the announcement Tuesday.

The committee works to regularly assess the University climate, enhance institutional cultural competence related to diversity, and develop and encourage cohesive institutional programming on the North Manchester and Fort Wayne campuses.

Dixon is working to complete a doctoral degree at Indiana State University in educational leadership administration and is looking at researching the diversity self-awareness of college and university presidents.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies (philosophy and race) from North Carolina State University in 2004. His thesis was on “Philosophical Understanding of Race and Racial Attitudes.”

He holds a master in education degree in in college student affairs leadership from Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Mich. 2007). His thesis examined “Racial, Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Student Affairs Graduate Preparation Programs.”

Dixon coordinates Manchester’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance and Rededication Ceremony. The 50th anniversary of King’s speech at Manchester – his final speech on a college campus before he was slain – is in February 2018.

About Manchester University
Manchester University, with campuses in North Manchester and Fort Wayne, Ind., offers more than 60 areas of academic study to 1,600 students in undergraduate programs, a Master of Athletic Training, a Master of Pharmacogenomics and a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy.  Learn more about the private, northern Indiana school at www.manchester.edu.

Feb. 28,  2017