Jury Awards Woman $730,000 in Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Texas Southern University

Surina Dixon, the former head women’s basketball coach at Texas Southern University in Houston, was awarded $730,000  by a jury in a federal lawsuit she filed in April 2010. Dixon was hired in March 2008 and fired three months later. She now is a teacher at a high school in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dixon alleged that she was fired in retaliation for speaking out about gender inequalities in the university’s athletics programs. In a statement, the university maintained that it had not discriminated against Dixon and was considering an appeal.