UMB Staff
Monique Dixon, JD, an experienced civil rights attorney, former Biden administration official, and alumna of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, has returned to her alma mater to become the first executive director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law.
In July, Dixon took the helm of the center, which works in collaboration with communities, government officials, and nonprofits to examine and address historical and current racial inequalities with a focus on the criminal legal system, economic justice, employment, education, housing, health, technology, transportation, voting, and emerging issues.
Launched in fall 2023, the Gibson-Banks Center is named after professors Larry Gibson, LLB, and Taunya Lovell Banks, JD, the first Black man and Black woman to become tenured full professors at the law school.
Dixon’s career has centered on addressing systemic inequalities. She is a former White House appointee who most recently served as deputy assistant secretary for policy in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Previously, she was deputy director of policy and director of state advocacy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she implemented federal policy and legislative reform priorities with a focus on criminal justice and education.
Dixon also 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 late Hon. Mabel Hubbard of the Circuit Court for the City of Baltimore, who was the first Black woman appointed to the Maryland bench.
Dixon is a 2017 recipient of The Daily Record Leadership in Law Award, a 2011 recipient of the Maryland Carey Law Benjamin L. Cardin ’67 Public Service Award, a 2009 recipient of the Racial Justice Award from the Young Women’s Christian Association, and a 1997 recipient of an Equal Justice Fellowship from the National Association for Public Interest Law (now Equal Justice Works).
A few weeks after starting her new role at the Gibson-Banks Center, Dixon sat down with CATALYST magazine.
What are your goals for the Gibson-Banks Center in your first six months as executive director? The first year?
I will continue to meet with lawyers, policymakers and advocates, students, professors, community organizers, and others who have expertise in the center’s focus areas to share the mission of the Gibson-Banks Center and identify ways that we could work together. These meetings will inform the development and implementation of short- and long-term strategic plans for the Gibson-Banks Center. We will also engage in urgent advocacy projects, as needed, and host public events during the academic year. (Visit the Gibson-Banks Center’s website to learn about the center and upcoming events.)
Baltimore has a rich history of civil rights advocacy, and I look forward to using the tools in our toolbox — education and engagement, litigation, law and policy reform, and multidisciplinary research — to continue this tradition of advocacy by clarifying and protecting the civil rights of racially marginalized groups in Baltimore, Maryland, and nationwide.
How will your background as a Maryland Carey Law alumna, civil rights attorney, and Biden administration official inform your work with the center?
My professional and personal backgrounds will inform my approach to the work at the Gibson-Banks Center.
As a Maryland Carey Law student, I took advantage of legal theory and practice courses, clinical law courses, and externship opportunities that offered excellent training in civil rights practice. I used this training as a civil rights attorney at several nonprofit organizations, where I was honored to serve Black and Latinx clients who fought for voting rights; equal access to housing, employment, and educational opportunities; and fair criminal legal systems. Most recently, as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, I had the privilege to lead an amazing team of career civil rights lawyers who produced policy documents that reminded pre-K through grade 12 schools and institutions of higher education of their federal legal obligation not to discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. The Gibson-Banks Center’s staff will tackle these and other issues in partnership with diverse stakeholders.
Also, I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. My late parents were born and raised in the segregated South when Jim Crow laws forced them to drink from water fountains and use bathrooms marked for “colored only.” My mother attended a historically Black university where she participated in sit-ins at racially segregated Woolworth lunch counters in 1960. My parents migrated to the North seeking better social and employment opportunities. They worked hard to make sure that their children had more and better opportunities. They succeeded. I, their youngest daughter, now serve as the inaugural executive director at a new civil rights center housed within one of the country’s oldest law schools. It is important to remember and continuously reflect upon the reality that our law school has a history of racial segregation. I see my parents in the fight to desegregate our law school. I see myself as a beneficiary of these and other struggles for racial equality. Now, it is my turn to continue the important civil rights work of my parents and so many others. I accept this assignment with pride and determination.
How does it feel to return to Maryland Carey Law and UMB?
It feels great. Over the years, I have remained connected to the law school by serving as a guest lecturer or participating in panel discussions about civil rights law practice as a career option. Also, after graduating law school, I worked with several Maryland Carey Law professors, including former professor Sherrilyn Ifill, who introduced me to civil rights law during my first year of law school and has been a good friend and trusted advisor since I graduated law school. So, I am returning to a place that is both familiar (the people) and different (the facility and latest programs).
Do you have a mantra or motto?
Yes. I have two. The first is: “To whom much is given, much is required.” I attended an intermediate school for the gifted and talented and our principal often repeated these words. She believed that everyone has special gifts and talents, and each person is expected to use these gifts and talents to benefit others. I agree.
The second is: “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” In all that I do, professionally and personally, I try to live life according to these words.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I stand 6 feet, 1 inch tall, but, to my late father’s chagrin, I never played basketball. I tried volleyball in high school, for the service credits, but I was never very good at it. I had a strong serve, though. My coach would rely on me to serve the ball, which the opposing team could not return. Inevitably, after scoring a few points I would become tired and serve the ball into the net. Coach immediately used a substitute player to replace me until we were behind in points and she needed me to serve again. From time to time, Coach would place me at the net to intimidate the opposing players because I was so tall. Little did they know that blocking the ball was not my gift. Coach replaced me with a sub once the opposing team figured it out. I spent most of my time warming the bench and cheering for my talented teammates. I was happy to contribute a few points each game and to earn the required service credits for graduation.
