She said she was unsure of how much longer she could stay out of the workforce, she said, while living a subpar life. When it came time to pursue higher education, Nixon said she worked hard to finish her bachelor's degree in science early at Southwestern Oklahoma State University so she wouldn’t have to pay for more than she needed to.Īs an undergraduate student, she typically took 17 to 19 credits a semester and worked part time, she said. She came from a six-person household that struggled to make ends meet with two younger sisters and a brother, Nixon said.Īlthough she never went hungry, she grew up mindful about her expenses. Nixon grew up in Oklahoma with school teachers for parents - her father was also a minister and her mother would later become a social worker. It doesn’t matter that she’s the first - it matters how she can use the new title to go even further. She views her new title as a distinguished professor the same way, she said. “And that was that it doesn’t matter why you got the job, it matters what you do with the job.” “She made a very good point,” Nixon said. But Self gave her some advice she still follows to this day, Nixon said. She still feels she would rather be known for her accomplishments rather than her gender, she said. As a graduate assistant at the University of Oklahoma, she told her mentor, developmental psychologist Patricia Self, she’d never want to land a job just because she was a woman. “I’m thrilled.”ĭecades ago, she said she used to be frustrated by the idea of deliberate career boosts for women - getting a job because employers want to even out the gender ratio in a workplace, for example. “You always want to believe that you’re going to be able to leave some kind of legacy,” she said. There are plenty of other women who are deserving.īut receiving the award confirms the fact that 16 years worth of her work at UF is valued, she said. But she’s not special just because she’s the first woman, Nixon said. In total, the College of Medicine only has four distinguished professors, and the other three are men.
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