Chief Diversity Officer, Senior Advisor to the President for Cultural Intelligence

Dr. Maria Dixon-Hall, Chief Diversity Officer, Senior Advisor to the President for Cultural Intelligence

Dr. Maria Dixon Hall joined SMU in 2004. She earned a Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia; a Th.M. in homiletics from Emory University; an M.Div. from Emory University; and a B.S. in marketing from the University of Alabama.

Recognized throughout her SMU career by students and peers alike for her passion for teaching and research, Dixon Hall has received the 2005–2006 Willis M. Tate Award for service to the student body; the 2009 Golden Mustang Award for outstanding teaching and research by junior faculty; the 2010 Rotunda Award for outstanding teaching; and the 2011 “M” Award, SMU’s highest award for outstanding service to the University.

Dixon Hall began developing SMU’s Cultural Intelligence Initiative in 2016 as a practical, effective alternative to traditional diversity training. CIQ@SMU seeks to give members of the SMU community behavioral skills needed as they work, learn and live respectfully and well with people from different cultural backgrounds. The Cultural Intelligence Initiative began offering its “Hidden Scripts” seminars focused on the language of implicit bias in Spring 2018.