Rebecca Dixon: Dreaming of Occupational Liberation

Dreaming in Color

Welcome to Dreaming in Color, a show hosted by Christian Celeste Tate and Anum Qadir from The Bridgespan Group, that provides a space for social change leaders of color to reflect on how their life experiences, personal and professional, have prepared them to lead and drive the impact we all seek.

In this episode, Anum sits down with Rebecca Dixon, President and CEO of the National Employment Law Project. Before taking the helm in 2020, Rebecca served on NELP’s Executive Management team as Chief of Programs. Since joining NELP in 2010, she’s 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 unemployment insurance 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.

Join us as Rebecca shares how her commitment to advancing workers’ rights is inspired by her lived experience growing up in rural Mississippi at the intersection of race, class, and gender.

This is Dreaming in Color.

Jump straight into:

(0:32) Introduction of Rebecca Dixon: President and CEO of the National Employment Law Project

(3:24) Rebecca illustrates how being a descendant of sharecroppers and her upbringing in rural Mississippi shaped her views on labor and fueled her passion for creating a standard of dignified work for all.

(12:39) Rebecca defines an equitable labor market.

(16:40) We explore how interest-based problem-solving is a great solution for creating a balanced workplace democracy.

(22:40) The importance of multi-generational support in the workplace.

(24:41) The dangers of occupational segregation.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Rebecca Dixon on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the National Employment Law Project through their website
• Follow the National Employment Law Project on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Read Rebecca’s article Reversing Labor Laws Rooted In Slavery.
• Read more of Rebecca’s writing here.