Mrs. Dixon has had an education career spanning 24 years. She began her career as a special education teacher at Evans City Elementary School in the Southwest Butler School District. She was also the itinerant master teacher/supervisor of special classes at the Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13, the supervisor of special education at both Hempfield and Derry Township school districts and a middle school assistant principal for the Derry Township School District.

   Mrs. Dixon has initiated and implemented a number of quality programs in her school. She has also served on her school’s Blue Ribbon School Committee, which was successful in earning the prestigious national Blue Ribbon Award for Excellence in May 2002.

   One initiative that she brought to the sixth grade was the practice of holding student-led conferences. This idea had been explored several years prior to her arrival, so she was working with staff that held preconceived ideas, both positive and negative. By attending several workshops and reading the research on student-led conferences, Mrs. Dixon was able to discuss its benefits with the sixth-grade staff. Their creativity enabled the school to implement a truly unique learning program, which retained a portion of the traditional parent/teacher conference format and incorporated the essential components of student-led conferences.

   In addition to being a member of PASSP and NASSP, Mrs. Dixon is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She also holds memberships in the Pennsylvania Middle School Association (PMSA) and the National Middle School Association (NMSA), the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the National Staff Development Council.

   She has presented at the state CEC conference on the topic of inclusion, and attended the PMSA conference in 2001 and 2002. She was a Webcast organizer and participant for the NMSA in 2002, and has served on several district committees, including strategic planning, differentiated supervision, professional education, crisis planning and the student assistance team.

   Mrs. Dixon earned a bachelor of science degree in special education from Bowling Green State University. She earned her master’s in education degree in special education from Slippery Rock University. Additionally, she received her supervisory certificate from Millersville University and earned her principal certification (elementary and secondary) and her superintendent’s letter from Widener University.