SALISBURY — The Salisbury Post has brought back its People to Watch with a 10-part series that looks at individuals with a big 2025 ahead of them. This week we meet a young, talented leader who grew up in Rowan County and decided to stick around.

Having just celebrated his 30th birthday on Jan. 3, Spencer Dixon might be considered at an age where his career should be taking off. But this Rowan County native’s career took off years ago, and just keeps tracking upward.

Dixon, as of November, is the new executive director of the Rowan Arts Council, but before his move, he spent six and a half years as the grants director for the Family Crisis Council of Rowan.

An English major with a required rhetoric minor from Hampden-Sydney College, Dixon’s writing skills are what landed him in the grant writing seat, he said.

“Rhetoric is a grammatically correct way of writing and speaking and you have to pass a rhetoric exam to graduate,” he explained. “Lots of people don’t pass it the first time, and I got put in a remedial class my freshman year.” But thanks to his professors, he said he caught up quickly and learned the necessary skills, to the point that he began to love the process.

And as an English major, with the required rhetoric minor, his writing skills led to his career steps across the board, including an internship with the Salisbury Post from October 2017 to February 2018, before he joined the Family Crisis Council.

“I was initially brought in as an outreach and media person, but with my writing background, they asked for my assistance in grant writing, and eventually made me the director. It had another name at the time but it was essentially overseeing the grant writing department,” he said.

In July of 2024, Dixon said the board of the arts council began working to reconfigure things, hoping to “move in a new direction,” and they brought him on contractually to help make programatic changes and seek out new funding sources. As the end of the contract drew near, the board was “very happy with my performance and the progress we’d made, and recognized, they said, that I’m familiar with this community, being from here, and I have a unique combination of skills and connections. And so they offered me the position.”

It meant breaking away from the Family Crisis Council, which was bittersweet because that in itself brought on some self reflection and change. Hampden-Sydney is one of only three remaining male-only colleges, and while he credits the college with its rhetoric requirement for at least part of his career, he also said that working at the Family Crisis Council meant he had to relearn some behaviors and attitudes.

“I had to unlearn some things,” he said. “I learned a lot about healthier relationships, and I gained an understanding of the need to support victims.”

Those are lessons he’s worked to share with young men, particularly in middle and high school.

Dixon said in the years he served at the Crisis Council, he has “grown a passion for the cause,” and even though he’s had to step down from a daily post, he is joining the board of the council.

Part of Dixon’s success, he said, is seeing the example laid out for him by his parents. He’s also aware that as a member of the somewhat small group of young people who grew up in Rowan County and chose to stick around, he has a responsibility to the community.

“Most who have stuck around have chosen to give back, and I’m certainly hoping to do that as well,” he said.

One of his first projects has been to create and host the county’s first ever Arts Festival, scheduled for May 3 at the Civic Center.

“We’re planning to highlight Rowan County artists and I hope to have representation from all 13 municipalities as well as the county,” he said. “I am not looking for any particular type of work, but for the artists across the realm.” He added that he recognizes that “art is not free, so each artist will be paid a stipend for their work.” He plans to share the event across social media and is excited to breath fresh, new life into the Arts Council.

Dixon had strong answers to the five questions put to each of the People to Watch group.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one record/album to listen to, what would it be and why?

Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap. It was my freshman year and my first introduction to rap and the way the whole album comes together and is a cohesive whole appeals to me. Yes, there are single songs or several songs from different albums I like, but if I had to choose one as a whole, this is the one. It’s tied to my fascination with short story collections and the album feels very much like that, one song leading to another. It was going to be either rap or a Broadway album.

If they made a movie about your life, who should the producers cast to play you?

Kieran Culkin. Because while I can be serious, I work to keep more levity in my life.

What is your motto/mantra/favorite saying?

The most important one is “Do the next right thing for the next right reason.” I’ve always tried to live my life according to that.  My other go-tos are from Flannery O’Connor, “I write to discover what I know,” and William Faulkner’s line, “I believe man will not merely endure, but prevail.”

Do you have a personal goal set for 2025?

To have a successful art festival! I’m not thinking beyond that right now. Except to also continue to progress the overall goals of the Arts Council.

Who is someone that you will be watching in 2025?

My brother just had a baby boy, and his nickname is “Bo” after my granddad. So Roy “Bo” Glenn Dixon, my nephew, is who I’m going to be watching as he grows.