NELP is led by Executive Director Rebecca Dixon. Rebecca is a respected national leader in federal workers’ rights advocacy and in great demand for her thought leadership at the intersection of labor and racial equity. Prior to taking the helm in early 2020, Rebecca served on NELP’s Executive Management team as Chief of Programs.
Rebecca’s motivation for advancing workers’ rights and commitment to economic justice are deeply rooted in her lived experience growing up in rural Mississippi at the intersection of race, class, and gender—characteristics that have long defined our ability to participate in our democracy and economy. As the descendant of enslaved people and daughter of sharecroppers and domestic workers, Rebecca knows firsthand what is lost when workers of color are relegated to the lowest rungs of our labor market, without respect, rights, and protections.
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 at Americans for Financial Reform, the Coalition on Human Needs, and The American Prospect; 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.
Rebecca holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from Duke, and a JD from Duke University School of Law.
