Graduate Spotlight: Vivian D. Nixon
Vivian Nixon, CCF's Executive Director of 14 years, earned her Bachelor's degree with CCF in 2001. This year - 19 years later - Vivian participated in our graduation ceremony once more, having just completed her Master's in Fine Arts from Columbia University, specializing in Creative Nonfiction.
Vivian's love affair with education started as a child in Port Washington, Long Island. Her neighborhood had been home to affluent families like the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, with the working-class families who staffed their mansions living nearby. Vivian remembers that "I always had access to high-quality education because of my neighborhood, even though my family wasn't wealthy." In school, Vivian excelled in creative writing and other subjects. Her love for the arts drove her to declare a Theater major in college, but her parents, focused on good blue-collar jobs with pensions, refused to support Vivian in pursuing the arts. That conflict led to years of spiraling into depression, which eventually resulted in Vivian's incarceration in 1997.
In prison, Vivian realized how lucky she had been to have access to high-quality education, and she began paying it forward as an adult education tutor for other women. Then, in her last days of incarceration, Vivian was handed a flyer for a newly formed organization helping women earn their degrees after prison: College & Community Fellowship. When she was released in 2001, CCF was one of Vivian's first stops.
With CCF's help, Vivian earned her Bachelor's degree. She was soon hired as an employee, where she worked running CCF programs until 2004 when she was awarded the prestigious Soros Justice Fellowship. For two years, Vivian sat on CCF's Board while doing her fellowship, focused on educating religious congregations about how they dedicate their time and resources to serving people in reentry. In 2006, Vivian was asked to rejoin CCF as Executive Director.
Under Vivian's leadership, CCF grew tenfold. Her time as Executive Director has been studded with honors, awards, and a huge expansion of CCF's programs. When Vivian first took on the role, CCF was a one-program organization dedicated to academic counseling for a handful of formerly incarcerated women earning their college degrees. Today, our college and career programs serve hundreds. At the same time, our advocacy work addresses systemic barriers to higher education, and our technical assistance work supports people in reentry by training the agencies and employers that serve them.
After many years of intensive leadership and team-building, Vivian realized that it was now possible for her to pursue the dreams she had as a young woman. With a capable staff in place to run CCF, Vivian enrolled in the MFA program at Columbia University. "I always wanted to be in the arts. That's why I was part of the Theater for Social Change Ensemble at CCF," Vivian remembers.
"I had tried to go back to school before for a Master's in Public Policy but realized it wasn't what I really wanted to do. When things fell in line at CCF, I felt like I was ready to begin preparing for the next chapter. I'm not going to work at CCF forever, but I wanted to make sure that in my life after CCF, I could do what I also wanted - to write."
In her MFA program, Vivian brimmed with excitement as she worked her way through each syllabus and began honing her craft. The program also gave her clarity:
"I believe that education is a game-changer, and my program gave me insight into the things you need to succeed besides formal education. You need to have a basic core belief that there will be opportunities for you, and that you have enough of a social network and enough social capital to build on your education. I realized that the network I've created in my years working for CCF will help me build the next chapter of my life."
Running CCF while doing her Master's "has been exhausting but enlightening," Vivian reflects.
"With the CCF team in place and me free to go back to school, I was able to reconnect with the basic values of CCF. I feel more aligned with our students, seeing CCF with fresh eyes, and I can feel how they feel each year at graduation."
This year, attending CCF graduation with her final degree, Vivian has some words of wisdom to share with current CCF students and graduates.