Know Your Neighbor: Nan Miller, Social Worker/Mt. Kisco Partners in Prevention Coordinator, Armonk

During high school Nan Miller didn’t exactly know what she wanted to do but had an inkling that whatever she chose it would be to help others.

Miller found her calling. For the past 35 years she has operated a private practice in Mount Kisco as a licensed clinical social worker, counseling clients who might be dealing with a wide range of issues. The opening of her practice followed varied experience of working in schools, hospitals and for an agency in the Bronx that counseled sexually abused children.

“I liked talking to people, I liked the one-to-one connection with people. It meant a lot to me,” Miller said. “It was something I always knew and when I got into the field it was something I knew I wanted.”

Locally, Miller, an Armonk resident, may be best known as the longtime co-coordinator of the Mount Kisco Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Council, a role she has filled since 1996. The council’s mission has been to reduce alcohol and drug use among youths in the community.

More recently, following Mount Kisco’s receipt of a renewable $125,000 federal Drug Free Community grant in late 2012, the village created Mount Kisco Partners in Prevention, established to highlight the importance of the initiative and fulfill the mission of the grant. Miller also serves as coordinator for Partners in Prevention.

She said drug and alcohol use among teens has been prevalent for a long time, particularly alcohol consumption. Many youngsters, and even some parents, accept the sampling of alcohol as a rite of passage but that sometimes may lead to drinking with greater frequency and the associated problems that can cause. Education is especially critical with a 2011 survey revealing that about 44 percent of parents in Westchester think it’s okay for a high school-aged student to take a drink.

“Our immediate goal right now, because you can’t do it all, is to work on reducing underage drinking, and we’re focusing on parents, helping parents to realize how serious this is, that it creates consequences,” Miller said.

In her role for both the council and Partners in Prevention, Miller works with the community’s various constituencies–not only parents and their children, but police, schools, clergy and merchants who sell alcohol.

She said one of the key strategies is to stress consequences and have police exercise compliance checks. Another is to get bar and restaurant owners to participate in a program that helps train them and their employees so they can avoid selling to underage patrons.

“We have taken measurements and we want to show there’s a reduction in underage alcohol usage,” Miller said. “We want parents to be much more aware and we want to help them talk to their kids about it and the consequences and be more concerned about it.”

A Long Island native, Miller graduated from Connecticut College before attending the Columbia School of Social Work. Later on, after her children were a little older, she returned to school and earned a doctorate in social work at NYU.

She started her career in a hospital where she served in the psychiatric unit, then worked in the Bronx, counseling sexually abused children. She has consulted for two nursing homes and now also serves The Kensington, an assisted living facility in White Plains.

While Miller, who enjoys traveling to visit her son and his family in Vermont and her daughter and her family in California, has spent much time working with adolescents, that hasn’t necessarily been the case with her private clients. Her counseling can cover myriad family issues or health concerns.

When she started as the coordinator for the council, she quickly realized that one person couldn’t do it alone. Miller also had difficulty reaching Mount Kisco’s growing Spanish-speaking population. For much of her time, Dolores Vidal-Roy has been the co-coordinator.

Despite the increased awareness and resources there is still much work to be done.

“We have a long way before we can change the norm, for sure,” said Miller.

Social work has provided Miller with a fulfilling career while making good on her promise to spend her life helping others.

“I have a real feeling for what I do,” she said. “I feel very fortunate. I’m one of those people who spend their life doing what they love to do.”