March 14, 2007
National association honors Billy Dixon
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Benton resident Billy G. Dixon, associate professor emeritus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and former chair of its Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was honored for program development and administration last month during the Association of Teacher Educators' annual meeting in San Diego, Calif.
The Distinguished Teacher Educator Award, jointly conferred each year by the association and Wadsworth/ITP Publishing Co., recognizes leadership in providing rigorous, relevant programs that bring diversity to campus. Winners collaborate with academic colleagues, state education agencies, professional organizations and community residents. They also serve as advocates and public educators for education in general and the profession in particular.
A member of the association for many years, Dixon served as its national president from 1988 to 1989. In 1990, he won one of 70 national awards given by the group to outstanding leaders in the field in a pool of recipients that included Terrell Bell, former U.S. Secretary of Education.
Dixon, who retired from SIUC in 2001, is a three-degree graduate of SIUC and belonged to numerous professional and honorary education associations over the course of his 42 years with the University. Before joining the SIUC faculty in 1975, he taught math and served as the mathematics chair at both University New School and Cahokia High School.