Monique Dixon ’96, a veteran civil rights attorney and former Biden-Harris administration official, has been named the inaugural executive director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
Dixon, a 1996 graduate of Maryland Carey Law, comes to the role with an impressive record as a civil rights leader in Baltimore, the state, and on the national stage. A former White House appointee, she most recently served as deputy assistant secretary for policy in the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
She returns to Maryland Carey Law with a sense of urgency fired by the current political and cultural climate in the United States.
“Our law school launched this center at a time when there are efforts afoot nationwide to ignore the long history of racial discrimination in this country,” Dixon said. “I learned how to use the law to address this and other forms of discrimination as a student at Maryland Carey Law and look forward to returning to the school to advance racial equity and justice.”
Launched in fall 2023, the Gibson-Banks Center is a space for education and engagement, advocacy, and research; and is a burgeoning resource for students, lawyers, and community members who are working to advance racial justice. It is named after professors Larry Gibson and Taunya Lovell Banks, the first Black man and Black woman to become tenured full professors at the law school.
Professor Michael Pinard, founding faculty director of the center stated, “Monique's leadership will be instrumental in realizing the vision of the Gibson-Banks Center, which is to work collaboratively to reimagine and transform institutions and systems of racial and intersectional inequality, marginalization, and oppression."
“We are delighted and fortunate to welcome Monique back to the law school to lead the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law,” said Maryland Carey Law Dean Renée Hutchins Laurent. "Her professional experience and relentless dedication to the struggle for racial justice position her to propel the young center to great heights.”
Dixon's career has centered on addressing systemic inequalities. Before serving in the Biden-Harris administration, she was deputy director of policy and director of state advocacy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), Inc. where she implemented federal policy and legislative reform priorities with a focus on criminal justice and education. She was also the lead architect of LDF’s state and local legislative and policy activities, including the Justice in Public Safety Project.
Previously, Dixon was director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program of Open Society Institute-Baltimore and senior staff attorney at the Advancement Project in Washington, D.C. After law school, she clerked for the Hon. Mabel Hubbard of the Circuit Court for the City of Baltimore.
She is a 2017 recipient of the Maryland Daily Record Leadership in Law Award, a 2011 recipient of the Maryland Carey Law Benjamin L. Cardin ’67 Public Service Award, and a 2009 recipient of the Racial Justice Award from the Young Women’s Christian Association.
Dixon took up the post at Maryland Carey Law on July 16.
Multiple events and initiatives associated with the Gibson-Banks Center are in the works for the upcoming academic year, beginning with a Sept. 9 community conversation on the topic, Addressing Mass Incarceration in Maryland: The Mission and Work of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative. The anchor event will feature guests Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue.