A La Porte County Life in the Spotlight: Robin Miller

Robin Miller is highly involved in multiple boards in La Porte County. Currently, she is most actively involved with her role on the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army of Michigan City.

“It’s my second month on the advisory board for the Salvation Army of Michigan City,” said Miller. “We’re looking at the backpack program for children who are living in poverty and who may also be food insecure and may need assistance with covering their meal needs over the weekends when they’re not in school. We also do school supply drives, bell ringing at Christmas, serving meals in the community, and things like that.”

Miller has served on the board of directors for family advocates, which provides critical services like the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program, Harmony House, supervised visitation and exchanges, and school-based mentoring programs, and access to other critical services for children and families.

She has also served on the Board of Directors for Family Focus, a non-profit offering parenting education and family support across nine Northwest Indiana counties.

Together, Miller and her family volunteer by serving meals at the Salvation Army of Michigan City. Their involvement as a family with the Salvation Army of Michigan City partly inspired her to join the organization’s Advisory Board.

“We’ve served meals at Salvation Army for a number of years, and have found that it’s a very solid community-facing organization. I felt compelled to provide some of my personal time toward their service,” Miller said.

Miller spent most of her childhood in northeastern Ohio and came to Indiana to attend Anderson University in 1986. She later earned her graduate degree from Loyola University in Chicago, and commuted from where she lived in Indiana during this time.

Today Miller serves as director of practicum education at Purdue University Northwest.

“My favorite part of my job is the students, but I’m also very proud of being a founding director of our Bachelor’s of Social Work program, which has been in existence for about 12 years,” said Miller. “We recently launched our first Master’s of Social Work program, of which I am also a founding director.”

Miller has the heart of a volunteer and is passionate about elevating others. She loves her family, her students, the mission of Purdue University Northwest’s Social Work Department, and her fellow community members, especially those in need of meals, services, and other general support. Miller is pouring her talents and leadership experience into the areas of La Porte County that require care and attention.