Vanessa Dixon

Vanessa E. Dixon, M.A., has over eighteen years of experience in both policing and academia. Beginning her career as a police officer in the City of Lowell, MA, she served as a patrol officer, firearms licensing administrator, school resource officer, and as a detective. In 2004 Vanessa Dixon transitioned to a teaching career serving as a Professor of Criminal Justice at Middlesex Community College attaining tenure in 2010. Additionally, Professor Dixon holds a level III instructor certification from the State of California P.O.S.T. as an Academy Instructor, Domestic Violence Advocate and in Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence from the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Vanessa Dixon has also served as the past Criminal Justice Chair of the Computer Forensics Advanced Technology Education Program, was trained as an advanced instructor with the Ford Foundation, and is a certified instructor with both Gang Resistance Education Training (GREAT) and the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO).

Currently, Ms. Dixon is an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at California State University of Long Beach and a Professor of Criminal Justice at Westwood College in Anaheim, CA. While at Westwood College she was awarded the National Faculty Member of the year 2012 for Outstanding Excellence in Academia. She is also consulting with various police and probation departments, and educational institutions, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Las Vegas Police Department, the New Haven Connecticut Police Department and the Standard Training for Corrections of California. Vanessa Dixon has dual Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Criminal Justice from American International College, Springfield, MA, and a Master of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Anna Maria College, Paxton, MA.