She enjoys working with people, solving problems and helping make the city the best it can be
“It helps that I like and enjoy meeting and working with people across our community, solving problems and helping make the city the best it can be.” Newport Beach Mayor Diane Dixon
“I learned about communicating issues at the dinner table growing up,” Newport Beach Mayor Diane Dixon says, “and politics was always part of the conversation.”
One of two daughters born in Evanston, Illinois to Jim and Helen Brooks, both journalism graduates from the University of Illinois, the girls enjoyed an eclectic childhood as daughters of newspaper owners.
“My parent’s dream, especially my father’s, was to own their own community newspaper,” Dixon shares.
The Brooks moved from Chicago to Phoenix in 1959 to buy their first newspaper and over the next 10 years added many others to their ownership. Jim was editor/publisher and Helen was managing editor. They sold Brooks Newspapers, Inc. (Arizona’s largest chain of community newspapers owned by a single owner) in 1969 and moved to Oakland, California, where Diane’s father became editor of the Oakland Tribune,later retiring to Palm Springs where he was editor of The Desert Sunnewspaper.
Diane attended Castilleja boarding school for girls in Palo Alto from 1967-69 and then moved to southern California to attend the University of Southern California in 1969. It was while her parents were in Oakland that Diane received her Bachelor’s in Political Science with honors from USC.
“I considered being a lawyer,” Dixon says. “I enjoyed the business world and yet I always knew I wanted to be in politics.”
Following graduation in 1973, Dixon worked for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce as assistant manager of government relations and then joined General Telephone of California as manager of government affairs, while working as a volunteer for various candidates running for governor, lieutenant governor and US senator. In 1978, she began work in public relations and public affairs for Deaver and Hannaford, which brought her into the Ronald Reagan orbit, as Deaver and Hannaford handled Reagan’s presidential campaign. Diane would have gone to Washington with the company when Reagan became President except she was six months pregnant with daughter Colleen. She had met Pat Dixon through mutual USC friends after they graduated from the university and were married September 6, 1975.
As soon as their daughter was born, Diane launched her own public affairs consulting firm and, while pitching companies for business, was offered a job with Avery (later Avery Dennison) she couldn’t refuse.
After servingas a senior executive at Avery Dennison, a Fortune 300 public company with $6.5 billion in annual sales, from 1982 to 2011, where she was responsible for the company’s global communications, government relations and corporate philanthropy, she and Pat moved full time to Newport Beach and Lido Isle in 2013, having bought their home two years earlier.
Pat had served for 38 years in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, including 15 years as head of the office’s Major Crimes Unit and three years as Assistant District Attorney. Currently, he serves as Special Counsel to Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
But, Diane was not done yet.
“I wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream of holding public office,” she says.
She explored running for Newport Beach City Council by talking to key people, as wel as many USC friends who live here. Her sister, substitute teacher Wendy Leece, was a big influence, as she had served eight years on the Costa Mesa City Council and eight years on the Newport Mesa School Board.
“Wendy was the first politician in our family,” Diane says proudly.
After reviewing her options, Diane felt running for public office was a good challenge and opportunity. At Avery Dennison she had managed the intersection of business and government by forging connections among business, government, communities and nonprofit organizations. She had also served for decades as a community leader on a number of community boards, including United Way, both in Orange County and Los Angeles, YMCA Los Angeles, KCET public television, USC Board of Councilors and Alumni Association, ALS Golden West Chapter, as well as educational institutions and child service agencies.
“I am proud to engage our residents and business owners to make their city work for them.” – Mayor Diane Dixon
“I felt my professional life gave me an excellent perspective to understand how business and government can work,” she says. And, she had first-hand knowledge of how nonprofit organizations can work together with local government and businesses to accomplish goals to improve communities.
So, Diane decided to throw her hat in the ring. She was elected to the Newport Beach City Council in November, 2014 to represent the city’s 1stDistrict and re-elected to a second, four-year term in November, 2018. Her platform was simple: fiscal discipline, transparency and listening to residents and business owners.
Diane’s City Council colleagues selected her as Mayor Pro Tem in December, 2014 and as Mayor in 2015 and again in 2018. She currently serves as a member of the council’s finance committee, serving as chair from 2015 to 2018. She previously served for two years as chair of the Water Quality and Tidelands Management Committee and currently is second vice president and treasurer of the board of directors for the Association of California Cities – Orange County.
Representing Newport’s District 1, which encompasses the Balboa Peninsula and the ocean-facing West Newport community, Diane has accomplished a lot as a City Council member and even more as Mayor.
“I am proud to engage our residents and business owners to make their city work for them,” she says. “I am particularly proud of the economic and public safety improvements that have taken place on the Balboa Peninsula” – in particular clearing the way for the Lido House hotel project on the former City Hall site and adding additional police resources.
Diane is a member of the California Women’s Leadership Association (CWLA), which is an organization of professional women of all ages, who are engaged in the community at every level. They represent the next generation of conservative women and work with leaders, foster future leaders, and partner with decision and policy makers at all levels of government. Diane was honored by CWLA in 2016 in the Community Heroes category for her commitment to public service and community leadership.
As to the Dixon’s family, their daughter Colleen, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, lives in New York City with husband Graves Tompkins, who she met at Harvard and who works at a private equity firm in the city. They have three boys – Brooks (6), Walker (4) and Teddy (almost 3), who are the apple of their grandparents’ eyes. Diane says she travels to New York once a month to see them.
Also members of the Dixon family are their dogs, who have continually been a part of the their lives – always two golden retrievers, one pure bred and one a rescue.
“Dogs are important in our life,” Diane smiles.
Diane credits her success to a few people.
“My parents instilled in me the desire to serve a community to strengthen its quality of life and economic vitality, and I could not have had the business and political success I’ve had without the support of my husband, “ she says.
And, how does Diane like her work in public service?
“I love it,” she says. “It’s the best job in the world. It helps that I like and enjoy meeting and working with people across our community, solving problems and helping make the city the best it can be. I sleep well at night. Doing the right thing. for the community guides me.”