Influential Woman · Arise Collective
Stephanie Dixon
MATCH Program Director, Arise Collective
Raleigh, NC
Her Story
About Stephanie
Stephanie Dixon serves as MATCH Program Director at Arise Collective, a nonprofit formerly known as Prison Match before rebranding. With 14 years in the field, she began as a volunteer coordinator while still teaching school and transitioned fully into nonprofit work supporting female inmates. Her daily responsibilities include teaching parenting classes, overseeing volunteers, and meeting one-on-one with women to address their needs. She learned grant writing upon becoming director and values the appreciation shown by participants and families. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of English from Knick College, an all-girls school, a master's degree in business and human resource management, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in ministry. She attributes her success to her solid upbringing focused on honesty and consistency, and advises approaching the work with an open mind while setting daily stopping points to prioritize tasks.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Stephanie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the way I was raised, being a good person. That's who I am. I don't have to come in and pretend to be nice to anyone. I attribute that to being raised in a solid home, a home with expectations and rules and things like that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Some of the best career advice I would say is I have to have a stopping point each day, and that was hard for me at first, but that it makes a lot of sense. Like, I can't just work, work, work. I have to say, okay, this can wait until tomorrow, and being able to prioritize things.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice I would give them is to come in it being open. Because sometimes we're closed-minded... just to come in with an open mind and try to have a clean slate, not bringing in what you've done in the past and the negative things.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Some opportunities is the fact that our nonprofit Mothers and the Children, we merged with a bigger, larger nonprofit last year called Arise Collective... that opened up so many more opportunities. I have a bigger staff... more support... The challenges are with so many different changes, with the grants, mostly the federal grants, that's a challenge for us.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The first variant for me is just being an honest person, whether it again is my personal life or at work. Honesty is the best policy, that's how I was raised, and I just want people to be honest with me, and I do the same at home and at work, as well as being consistent in someone people can't rely on, again, at home, in my personal life.
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