Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer Miller

Jennifer+Miller+sits+at+her+desk.

Lily Gonzalez

Jennifer Miller sits at her desk.

Kathryn Vlaanderen, News Editor

Jennifer Miller is Wayne State College’s newest assistant professor in the Political Science Department and is eager to share her interest in the field of political science with the rest of the WSC campus.  

Miller’s journey starts in Lincoln where she received her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Miller attended the University of Nebraska-Omaha for her master’s degree. However, when she graduated from the UNO, she didn’t receive a job right away.  

During her time as an undergraduate, Miller was originally attending college to go into law. Then, she found a passion for political science, which she made her minor. When she attended college for her master’s degree, she began to study human rights. Miller also received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.  

“It was an interesting crossover between criminal justice and politics because what I was studying was international criminal justice and how we deal will large scale violations of human rights,” Miller said.  

 Before committing to a teaching position on the WSC campus, Miller spent her time as the assistant director of research and IT for the Nebraska Board of Parole/Division of Parole Supervision. Miller has brought her passion for teaching to numerous colleges such as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Omaha and Cleveland State University and now is eager to teach at WSC.   

One of her favorite things about teaching is the about teaching is the ability to engage with students and get to know them better.  

“Whether I am teaching an Introduction to American Politics class with about forty students or Rights and Liberties class with twenty students, we still have the opportunity to get to know one another, to talk about important things and to really engage in a way that you can’t do with groups of  five hundred,” Miller said.  

Miller said she believes the students of WSC are very open to discussions and enjoyable to be around.  

One of Miller’s favorite things to teach is research and statistics so that people feel more confident in carrying out individual experiments and the ability to answer questions that people aren’t able to fully answer yet.  

In her free time, Miller enjoys traveling. This past summer she was able to make a trip to Peru and spend weeks there. She is already planning her next fun adventure which will be to Colorado.