Associate Dean Jill Miller leaves Duke Law

September 30, 2008Duke Law News

Sept. 30, 2008 -- The following remarks were delivered by Sonja Ralston Elder '09 at a send-off party on Thursday, Sept. 25 for Jill Miller, associate dean for student affairs.

As a student body we’ve been lucky to have Jill Miller, and I’ve been luckier than most because I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her for longer than most of my colleagues.

In considering what to say about Dean Miller, I realized that I could tell you about her dedication to the development of leadership here at the law school: through the award-winning Blueprint and the LEAD fellows program. I could tell you about her passion for the community and those less fortunate: her service in the Junior League, her role with the HOBY youth program. Or I could tell you about her remarkable sense of integrity: her drive to push us all to embody the strict guidelines of the Honor Code; her firm coaching about completing bar fitness applications.

But, although all these attributes make Jill a great dean of students, I’d rather tell you about what makes Jill such an amazing person: her heart. From the moment students arrive here at Duke Law, Jill’s door is open to the nervous and the confident, the over achievers and the under achievers, those who need someone to talk to and those who just popped in to say hello.

I’m certain that more students have cried on her shoulder and hugged her in celebration than any other person here. She is our mother, our colleague, our cheerleader, our therapist, and our conscience, but most importantly, she is our friend.

Jill, I’m glad we have this opportunity to tell you, but I hope you’ve always known how very much you mean to us. Now those Wahoos will be lucky to have you.