Apollo 11 anniversary meant more for PAC graduate

Apollo 11 anniversary meant more for PAC graduate

July 28, 2020
Austin Gibbons (AB '20)

Stephanie Dixon (AB ’18), an inaugural cohort member of the Public Affairs Communications program, experienced the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing last year in a very special manner through her job with Lockheed Martin. In the weeks before the anniversary, Dixon worked behind the scenes on Lockheed’s unveiling of the Orion capsule at the Kennedy Space Center. Decades after the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, the Orion capsule will carry astronauts to the moon for the upcoming Artemis mission.

Dixon is now permanently based in Denver, Colorado, where she is a content specialist and editor at Lockheed Martin Space.

Before this, Dixon was part of Lockheed Martin’s Communications Leadership Development Program. This two-year, rotational program allowed Dixon to gain experience in external communications with Lockheed’s Rotary and Mission Systems sector before spending her second-year at Lockheed Martin Space. After graduating from CLDP, Dixon was promoted to her current position.

During her time at Lockheed Martin Space, Dixon has worked on internal communications for the company’s contributions to the movie Ad Astra, the Apollo 11 anniversary, multiple satellite launches and the retirement of NASA’s Spitzer Space telescope, which was built by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is one of the only companies to have had a role in every mission to space since NASA was founded.

“Whether it is working on program milestone announcements, developing our employee intranet or rolling out new strategic tools to engage our workforce, writing is a core tenet of what I do every day,” said Dixon. “CLDP and Grady played a huge role in allowing me to develop these communications skills, and I look forward to further honing my business acumen with an MBA starting this fall – because communicators should always have a seat at the decision-making table in any business.”

Dixon plans to pursue her master’s in business administration starting this fall at the University of Colorado in Denver. Leading up to her graduation from UGA with a public relations degree in 2018, she held leadership positions in the Public Relations Student Society of America, worked on statewide and congressional political campaigns and interned with a PR agency. Networking and hard work got Dixon to where she is today, and she recommends that all current and future PAC students say ‘yes’ to every volunteer opportunity, guest speaker engagement and informational interview possible to build valuable connections.