Q&A | Meet Roxanne Greitz Miller, Attallah College’s new dean

Teaching has been a passion for Roxanne Greitz Miller, the new dean of Attallah College of Educational Studies, since childhood. In a March 3 interview with The Panther, she explained how her family invigorated that passion. JAKE NEEDHAM, Staff Photographer

“Effective immediately,” were the words emblazoned on a Feb. 25 email from the Office of the Provost, announcing the appointment of Roxanne Greitz Miller as dean of Attallah College of Educational Studies. Miller’s promotion follows a long-commended career as an educator — including 17 years at Chapman University.

Miller sat down for a virtual interview with The Panther on March 3, where she revealed her motivations for becoming a teacher and detailed the ways her experience guided a path to becoming Attallah College’s new dean.

Miller’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity and stylistic standards.

Q: Can you describe your journey through these last 17 years at Chapman, from your very first position to now inheriting your role as dean of Attallah College?

A: I started here in 2005 after nearly 10 years of secondary public school teaching experience and a five-year postdoctoral scholar appointment at the University of California, Riverside. I came to Chapman as a tenure track assistant professor with several large federally-funded grants (and) then got more grants while I was here.

My initial roles in Chapman were in teaching and research. Shortly after tenure, I began to take on more administrative leadership at Chapman, which started in the College of Educational Studies, then in the Office of the Provost in the Institute for Excellence in Teaching and (lastly the) Graduate Education Division. 

Then there was a national search for a new dean of Attallah College. I applied alongside other people from across the country. We were all intensively interviewed over several weeks, culminating in full-day interviews on campus. 

Now, I serve as the dean of Attallah College.

Q: How did you feel when receiving the news about becoming a Dean?

A: As a first generation college student who came from a lower income background, I can tell you that it's a position that I never imagined would be open to me when I started my career 30 years ago.

As a child, the only people that my family interacted with who had college degrees were our doctor and our minister. 

Just being able to attend college, and then become a teacher was, for me, a dream come true. 

Then, I pursued going to graduate school, because I wanted to become an even better teacher. Throughout my career, I just continually looked for opportunities for professional development to increase my skills in a variety of areas.

I feel very humbled and blessed that I’ve had such opportunities to grow in so many different ways over what's now more than a 30-year career. 

Q: At what point in your life did that interest in teaching bloom?

A: I attended New York public schools early in my life in a very diverse community. 

My parents, coming from the background that they did, made me very aware of how education could address people’s needs — not just academically, but also in ways that families couldn’t access the resources for.

I had a conversation once with my father in the second grade, and I asked him why there were all these washing machines and dryers in the back of my school gymnasiums, because you wouldn't think that an elementary school would have those things.

He told me, “Not everybody has a way to get to or pay for the laundromat, or has a washer or dryer where they can wash their clothes. What you don't know is that some of your friends bring their clothes to school to be washed.”

My parents didn't go to college. My father didn't even finish high school, because he had to support his family. I know that my parents’ teachers and educational experiences laid the foundation for their success, because their families could not address those issues. 

Growing up in those environments and seeing how schools can make positive changes for people made me want to be able to help others. I wanted to contribute to students’ lives in academic and non-academic ways.

Q: Do you see your ongoing work as Dean utilizing that combination of both academic and non-academic support for students?

A: Absolutely. It really speaks to the positioning of the College of Educational Studies. At Chapman, the Attallah College does not concentrate only on services inside of a classroom.

Our programs here are varied, including pre-teacher preparation at the undergraduate level, but they also include exposure to curriculums that create leaders in non-profit settings and non-government organizations — places that provide wraparound services to our pre, K-12 and post-secondary schools.

We have faculty who specialize specifically in increasing college access, so it’s not just the typical pre-teacher preparation that you might find at another university at the graduate level. We have counselor preparation, we have school psychology preparation, a master's in leadership development and a PhD program with four different emphases. 

We're very much a comprehensive college of educational studies, which really embodies the idea of addressing the individual and all of their needs — not just on the academic front. 

So I'm very excited to be able to continue that legacy here in Attallah College (and) to really work with the whole person.

Q: Much of your education and work has also focused on exploring the sciences. How does that aspect of your career lend insights to your current position as dean of Attallah College?

A: To me, the scientific mindset is really at my core. Whether I'm working with someone in a literacy setting, or I'm working with someone in a purely science education setting, I apply that investigative method to everything. 

Even when it's a business decision or an academic decision I have to make as dean, that inquisitive, scientific mindset is something I can't separate from myself. 

Q: Similarly, as someone who has taught in secondary schools for a decade, what do you think has been consistent between your time working in secondary schools and your role now as dean?

A: Secondary schools are very complex. They're very large organizations that also have multiple layers of systems. 

Running a college has the same type of system orientation because of the size of it and its relationship to the greater university. Being aware of how these various systems interact with one another (and) depend on each other but all contribute to a shared mission — that is very similar between college and secondary schools.

I think that's a little bit different from someone who, for example, may have started their career in an elementary setting. Elementary schools are more of a self-contained operation than a secondary environment. 

I think it’s also important, especially today, to understand adolescent development and early adulthood.

Being someone who worked in secondary schools for as long as I did, the needs of secondary students are often very similar in ways to a college student. I’m comfortable having those types of interactions because of being in that environment for as long as I have.

Q: Lastly, if you could go back to when you got your very first job in education, what would you tell yourself?

A: That’s a very good question, because I wasn’t much older than most Chapman students at the time. I was 21-years-old when I started in my very first classroom.

I would most likely tell myself: “You will only regret what you do not do. Take every opportunity that you’re given. All knowledge is good knowledge, and all experience is attributed to that knowledge. Be brave.”