Valerie E. Dixon

Valerie E. Dixon
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Chair of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
Location:
3802 Sangren Hall, Mail Stop 5226
Mailing address:
Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
色色啦 Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5226 USA
Valerie E. Dixon
Education:
  • Ph.D., Rehabilitation Administration, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • Ed.S., Rehabilitation Counseling, Florida State University
  • M.A., Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling, University of South Florida
Bio:

As a lifelong learner and counselor educator, Dr. Dixon is passionate about counselors receiving quality training and continuous professional development so they can provide effective service delivery and interventions to all their clients especially the underrepresented populations.

For the past 13 years at her previous academic home, she served multiple administrative roles in the Counselor Education program. During her tenure as the program lead, Dr. Dixon was awarded over $4 million in federal grants from the Department of Education, serving as both Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Director, the program obtained CACREP reaccreditation for 8 years, improved time to graduation with establishment of cohort models, and developed collaborative opportunities with community partnerships to ensure student success post-graduation. 

Prior to her academic appointments, she worked over 18 years in the human service/rehabilitation counseling field in several capacities such as counseling supervisor and program director where she developed region-wide staff development/training for state vocational rehabilitation counselors, facilitated county-wide training for healthcare professionals, and statewide staff training initiatives for officer academy trainings.

Her research, which has appeared in top tier journals, focuses on underrepresented populations (persons w/disabilities, multicultural populations, offenders), and counseling supervision and staff development/training.  These efforts have resulted in a textbook, several peer-reviewed articles, textbook chapters and over 35 peer-reviewed national or regional conference presentations. 

She is the recipient of the national Sylvia Walker Education Award and has provided national service as Past President of American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) where she has also held multiple nationally elected positions as President-Elect and Director, Organization, Administration and Management Council and the founding faculty advisor for Student American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (SARCA).  

She is a licensed clinical counseling professional in multiple states, a qualified supervisor, a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor, nationally certified counselor and a professional vocational expert for Social Security Administration.