Introduction Episode
Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, Season One: Race and the American Legacy! This season explores one of the most pressing issues in all of American history—the country’s troubled and difficult history of race relations. This podcast focuses on the history of the nation’s most powerful office, the President of the United States, and its complex relationship with race. This episode discusses why we felt compelled to create this podcast, why 2020 feels different, and what we hope to learn about race and the American presidency.
Hosts Dr. Sharron Conrad, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, and Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky interview Dr. Maria Dixon Hall, Chief Diversity Officer at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Dixon Hall talks about her work, her teaching, the country's complex racial past, the role of race in American politics, and what she thinks will be necessary for racial healing and progress.
Guest: Dr. Maria Dixon Hall
Dr. Dixon Hall joined the SMU faculty in 2004 after a career in corporate marketing and sales. As Director of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs of the Division of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs in the Meadows School of the Arts, she oversees curriculum and assessment for the Division’s Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communication. Additionally, Dixon Hall serves as the director of mustangconsulting. Staffed by the best and brightest communication student consultants, mustangconsulting serves a global client list that includes corporate, non-profit, and religious organizations such as Southwest Airlines (Dallas), The Dance Theatre of Harlem (New York), the Ugandan American Partnership Organization (Kampala/Dallas), The Lydia Patterson Institute (El Paso), and Carry the Load (Atlanta/Dallas). Their research has been featured in the New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, DMagazine The Franchise Times, and Restaurant Nation.
Her research and professional consulting is focused on the implications of identity, power, and organizational culture on the strategic communication of religious and non-profit organizations. Dixon Hall serves on the editorial boards and as a reviewer for both her field’s national and international publication outlets, as well as their academic conferences. Her work appears in the discipline’s top journals including: Management Communication Quarterly, The Journal of Communication and Religion, Business Communication Quarterly, and Southern Journal of Communication. Dixon Hall maintains an active national speaking schedule and is a frequent contributor to national media outlets such as Time Magazine and CNN on issues of race and education. She is the author of the “View from Dixon Hall”, the highly rated blog on the Progressive Christian Channel of Patheos.com. Her examination of the University of Oklahoma’s failures in dealing with race entitled, “Transformation 101” became one of 2015’s most viral blogs. A Probationary Deacon in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, Dixon Hall is a frequent contributor to the United Methodist Reporter and The Religious News.
Recognized throughout her SMU career by students and peers alike for her passion for teaching/research, Dr. Dixon Hall is the 2005-2006 Willis M. Tate award for service to Student Body; the 2009 Golden Mustang for outstanding teaching and research by junior faculty; 2010 Rotunda Award for Outstanding Teaching; and the 2011 of the “M” Award, SMU’s highest award for outstanding service to the University; and in 2016 was named Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Fellow.
A graduate of the Culverhouse School of Business at the University of Alabama, Dixon Hall began her career in sales and market research as a Pulp and Paper Market Specialist for Dow Chemical USA in Atlanta, Georgia and as District Sales Supervisor for Diamond Exteriors/Sears. Exploring her passion for religious organizations and communication, Dr. Dixon completed a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology from the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, as well as a PhD in Organizational Communication and Religion from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2004.