PDG Adele Miller

A member of the Rotary Club of Jersey City since 1986, Adele Miller has held every major club office and served as president in 1999-2000. While president, she inaugurated the club’s annual vocational service scholarship wine-pairing luncheon to assist adults in need in pursuing new careers and also launched the club’s dictionary project in which the club distributes 3,000 dictionaries yearly to the city’s third grade pupils. She also organized and chaired many of the club’s annual formal events, including several at Windows on the World, located on the 107^th floor of the World Trade Center in New York City, to benefit PolioPlus. After the September 11 World Trade Center attack, she initiated the club’s first Windows on the Hudson Luncheon, raising $12,000 to aid family members of the Windows on the World staff who perished.

As 2010-2011 District Governor, Adele initiated several district-wide “firsts:” her Flight 7490 to Fight Polio at Greenwood Lake Airport; a district-wide vocational assembly to honor district Rotarians performing exemplary vocational service; a midwinter membership retreat to rejuvenate club members; county-wide “RI 106^th Birthday Parties” in the district’s 3 counties, culminating with the chartering of the district’s 55^th club, the Rotary Club of Union City and West New York; and a year-end gala, A Celebration of Service, at which 2010-2011 RI Vice-President Tom Thorfinnson awarded RI Presidential Citations to 32 district club presidents and to Adele as Governor and presented RI’s prestigious Service Above Self Award to PDG Joe Laureni. In addition, she began a massive public relations campaign using strategically located highway billboards throughout the district to raise public awareness about Rotary, organized a successful Group Study Exchange with District 2070 in Italy, and helped the Japanese Medical Society of America start a tsunami relief program in District 2530 in Japan.

Before becoming district governor, she served as assistant governor, RI Centennial Chair, district secretary, co-chief of staff, and was asked to represent District 7490 at District 2650’s annual conference in April 2007 in Kyoto, Japan. She convened the Nominations Committee for 2013 District Governor and served on the committee which selected the 2004-2005 Governor. In addition, she chaired a special district Seeds of Peace Committee in 2008, raising $10,000 to send three Middle East teen leaders to the Seeds of Peace’s annual summer camp in Maine to develop conflict resolution skills and practice peaceful co-existence. She is currently completing a second term as a trustee of the district’s Gift of Life Foundation and will serve as district RI Foundation Chair in 2012-2015.

In the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area Adele chaired the 2009 Multi-District New Jersey Vocational Assembly and has served on its planning committee from 2008-present. She co-chaired the 2011 Multi-District Rotary Foundation Seminar and served on its planning committee in 2010. She has also been a member of the planning committee of Mid-Northeast PETS from 2008 to the present, serving as secretary in 2008-2009 and initiating the first fellowship dinner in 2009, which is now an annual event.

In Rotary Zone 32, Adele served on the 2009 directory committee, was a discussion leader at the 2009 and 2010 Zone Institutes, assisted with banquet seating at the 2011 Zone Institute, and is currently responsible for selecting and assigning aides to all the speakers and special guests at the 2012 Zone Institute. She also served as a delegate to the Rotary International Conventions in 2010 and 2011. A 1999 graduate of the Rotary Leadership Institute, she is a certified RLI instructor and currently serves on the planning committee for the 2012 annual meeting.

Adele has held leadership positions in numerous professional, philanthropic and community organizations and was invited to attend a Reagan White House Briefing on education, women’s issues and arms control. She has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among American Women, and Who’s Who in American Education. She enjoys boating, classical music, the theater, and traveling with her husband Bill, who is also a Jersey City Rotarian. Adele and Bill are Rotary Foundation Permanent Fund Benefactors, multiple Paul Harris fellows, Walter D. Head Foundation Fellows, and Rotary Club of Jersey City Foundation Fellows.