Don’t let her smaller stature or quiet demeanor fool you; Stacey Dixon has shown she is a powerhouse with a purpose. In her new role as Director of Military and Veteran Services at Kennesaw State University, she is on a mission to revitalize the program to reach more students.
“The hardest part is seeing students not getting what they need and not knowing there are resources available to them,” she said. “We have more than 1,700 military-connected students at KSU, and they need to know we are here. That’s my mission.”
A 20-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Dixon has lived a life of making lofty goals and achieving them all.
Her motivated and passionate spirit started at an early age. Dixon wanted to join the Marines when she was 17 after she saw the transformation it made in her brother. However, her mother was adamantly opposed and refused to sign the consent form for underage admission.
“So, I turned 18 in October, and I was on a bus to boot camp in December,” Dixon said. “There was no turning back after that, but it was difficult. This was in the ’80’s, so as a woman – a Black woman – in the Marine Corps, it was hard. Very, very hard.”
Dixon and her brother were stationed together for a time, and she recalls that he was one of the most intense noncommissioned officers she had ever dealt with.
“He was one of those Marines who didn’t like women being in the Marines,” Dixon said. “He did everything to try to turn me away. But everything he said I couldn’t do, I proved him wrong.”
Her brother medically retired after 12 years in the service, but Dixon kept going with her sights set on becoming a warrant officer. Year after year, she applied, but was continually denied, and she finally stopped submitting her application.
“Being a warrant officer was part of my plan,” she said. “It was what I was supposed to do.”
Dixon’s commanding officer initiated her tenth application on her…
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