Prior to joining Elmhurst College, she earned a tenured Professorship of Political and Social Sciences at the City Colleges of Chicago, where she also served as a Dean of Instruction and Director of the Honors and Illinois Scholar Programs. In 2001, she was named the Illinois Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2002, she was awarded the American Political Science Association’s Pi Sigma Alpha Teaching Award. A lifelong resident of Chicago and a learned scholar of Chicago politics, Professor Mixon provides political analysis for Chicago news programs, including local NBC and WGN affiliates, and has moderated numerous political programs for Chicago’s public television station, WYCC.