First African-American female Texas Ranger to speak at Trine symposium

Christine Nix, Ph.D., the first African-American female Texas Ranger, will serve as keynote speaker at Trine University’s Criminal Justice Symposium on Friday, April 21.

The symposium will be held in Fabiani Theatre inside the Rick L. and Vicki L. James University Center on Trine’s campus. Local students and members of the public are invited to join Trine students for the free event.

The theme for the symposium is “Criminal Justice Diversity: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We’re Going.”

Following a 15-minute presentation by Trine’s Admission Office at 9 a.m., Dr. Nix will tell her story of the challenges she experienced entering the field of criminal justice as an African-American female in the 1970s and the triumphs she experienced rising to the top of law enforcement in the state of Texas and becoming a criminal justice professor.  Her address will last about an hour.

Those in attendance will then break for 15 minutes and return for a panel discussion.

A US Army veteran, Dr. Nix became was the first African-American female promoted to serve in the Texas Rangers in 1994. She retired in 2004 after 20 years with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

She currently serves as associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas.

For more information, contact Teresa Davidson, administrative assistant for Trine University’s Department of Criminal Justice, at davidsont@trine.edu.