Nancy Miller
Associate Professor, Public Policy
Regents' Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring

“Nancy possesses an unlimited reserve of patience, creative problem-solving abilities and a keen eye of discernment, all of which greatly support her students in building their research and career paths,” says Bethany Griffin, public policy ’02, in describing what makes her mentor, Nancy Miller, so gifted.

As the health track advisor to health policy graduate students, Miller has mentored 15 doctoral degree recipients in the last two years, while serving on 13 additional doctoral committees and serving as a reader for 11 others. She also directs, teaches and advises students in the new intercampus gerontology Ph.D. program’s aging policy track.

With her support, students have produced significant dissertations and received numerous awards and recognition for their work. In recent years, two of Miller’s advisees were finalists for the Laurence G. Branch Doctoral Student Research Award (named for one of the major figures in the study of aging and human development), given by the American Public Health Administration, and one of the students received the award.

The relationship Miller builds with her students does not end on graduation day; she continues to be an anchor and guide as they establish themselves in their careers. Keith Elder ’02, assistant professor at the University of Carolina’s School of Public Health, explains, “Dr. Miller became my mentor in fall 1999. Today, she still serves as my mentor, my trusted counsel….When I first met her, I wondered why she displayed pictures of her students and their families mixed in with her own family. Now I know why. She considers her students her family. As a new faculty member, I strive every day to be that kind of mentor.”

According to Miller, who joined the UMBC faculty in 1992, her gift in mentoring is just that–-a gift--passed on to her by the caring individuals who helped to carefully guide her along her own successful academic road and career path. It is a legacy she perpetuates with her students “in gratitude to those who mentored me,” she says.