Rebecca Dixon

Biography

NELP is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Dixon. Rebecca is a respected national leader in federal workers’ rights advocacy and is in great demand for her thought leadership on issues of labor and racial, gender, and economic justice.

Rebecca’s commitment to advancing workers’ rights and economic justice is deeply rooted in her lived experience growing up in rural Mississippi at the intersection of race, class, and gender—characteristics that have long defined one’s ability to participate in our democracy and economy. As the descendant of enslaved people and daughter of sharecroppers and domestic workers, Rebecca knows firsthand what is lost when workers of color are relegated to the lowest rungs of our labor market, without respect, rights, and protections.

Prior to taking the helm in 2020, Rebecca served on NELP’s Executive Management team as Chief of Programs. Since joining NELP in 2010, she has advanced NELP’s growth and impact while serving in several positions, including policy analyst and senior staff attorney. During the Great Recession and its aftermath, Rebecca was a leader in winning unprecedented unemployment insurance coverage expansions in 20 states and multiple extensions of federal emergency UI benefits for long-term unemployed workers.

In 2012, Rebecca was selected by the State of New York for its Empire State Leadership Fellows program and served in the Office of the Governor in its Labor and Civil Rights Division. She is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association; a board member of The American Prospect, Americans for Financial Reform, the Coalition on Human Needs, the Hope Enterprise Corporation, and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation; and a member of the Economic Analysis and Research Network in the South, the 2020 Aspen Institute SOAR Leadership Fellowship, and the 2021 National Academy of Social Insurance’s Unemployment Insurance Reform Working Group and COVID-19 Task Force. Rebecca holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Duke University, and a law degree from Duke Law School.

Education

J.D., Duke Law School
M.A., Duke University
B.A., Duke University