Irma Muse Dixon

Irma Muse Dixon (born July 18, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana) is the first African-American elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC). Dixon represented the Third District on PSC from 1992 (replacing Louis Lambert) through reelection in 1998 to the term ending in 2004.

In the early 1980s, Dixon was affiliated with the Total Community Action Agency and its Central City Health Clinic, run by former State Representative Dorothy Mae Taylor, the first African-American woman to serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Through this agency and clinic, a generation of rising black politicians such as Dixon were groomed.^[1]

Dixon previously represented District 95 in the Louisiana House for four years (elected 1988, reelected 1991), but she resigned upon her election to the PSC in 1992.^[2] Dixon's dozen years of service on PSC brought her a commendation from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in 2004.^[3]

Dixon's losing races^[4] occurred in 2002, 2004, and 2007:

• 2002 in challenging then incumbent William J. Jefferson to represent Louisiana's 2nd congressional district
• 2004 in seeking re-election to PSC District 3 (She was third behind Cleo Fields and Lambert Boussiere III; Boussiere won the runoff.)
• 2007 in running for the open seat in Louisiana Senate District 5, vacated when incumbent Diana Bajoie was term-limited (The runoff election was between Cheryl A. Gray Evans and Jalila Jefferson-Bullock; Evans won.)

A graduate of Walter L. Cohen Senior High School, Dixon obtained her B.A. from Southern University in Baton Rouge. She holds a Master of Social Work from Tulane University and is a fellow of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[5]

Dixon has served in state government with the Office of Employment Training and Development and as an undersecretary in the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism; and in New Orleans city government as Director of the Department of Recreation. She is a security manager for Xyant Technology. She is active in the Urban League, the Boys and Girls Club of New Orleans, the YWCA, and New Orleans' Second Baptist Church. In 2009 she was chosen to head Beacon of Hope, a New Orleans charitable organization.^[6]

Notes