Kira Dixon

Kira Dixon, born Kira Kazantsev on July 20, 1991, in San Francisco, California, is a first-generation American, with her parents having immigrated from Moscow in 1990. She is trilingual, fluent in English, Russian, and Spanish. Dixon demonstrated early leadership, serving as student body president at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, California, in 2009. Her academic pursuits led her to Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, where she triple-majored in political science, global studies, and geography. She continued her education at USC, earning a Master’s in Specialized Journalism, and further honed her business acumen by completing the Stanford Ignite entrepreneurship program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017.

Dixon’s career began in pageantry, where she held multiple titles including Miss California Preteen 2004, Miss California Junior Teen 2007, Miss Cosmopolitan 2013, and Miss City of New York 2014, before being crowned Miss New York 2014. In 2014, she achieved national recognition by winning Miss America 2015, becoming the third consecutive Miss New York to hold the title. Her platform during Miss America, “Love Shouldn’t Hurt”: Protecting Women Against Domestic Violence, was inspired by her personal experiences. As Miss America, she also served as the official National Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and launched the #PutTheNailinIt campaign with Safe Horizon to raise awareness about domestic violence. She was also the first Miss America in 35 years to travel with the United Service Organizations (USO) to visit troops abroad.

Transitioning from pageantry, Dixon leveraged her background into broadcasting, particularly in sports journalism. She joined NBC Sports in 2021 as a reporter for GOLF Channel’s PGA TOUR coverage, later expanding her roles to include studio hosting and reporting on events such as swimming. Prior to this, she was a GolfPass Lifestyle Correspondent, hosting programs like Golf Advisor Living and Golf Advisor Round Trip on GOLF Channel, and contributed digital content for the USGA. She notably won a Sports Emmy as part of NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics for Outstanding Live Special – Championship Event, underscoring her adaptability and skill in covering diverse sports.