Meet the Executive Director

Benita Miller was recently named Executive Director of Powerful Families, Powerful Communities as an Executive on Loan to the Department of Children and Families in New Jersey. She will be working closely with coalition and community members to advance this revolutionary initiative.

Ms. Miller has been working in and around social activism, social services and children’s services for 25 years. She comes to this role from the Children’s Aid and Family Services, where she also served as Executive Director and focused on child welfare, addiction and developmental disabilities services.

Prior to that, Ms. Miller led the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, developing strategies for a holistic approach to child development and well-being. She’s worked in the Office of the Mayor in New York City, creating a Children’s Cabinet that bolstered communication among city agencies to ensure child safety and she’s worked for the Administration for Children’s Services, where she led initiatives and operations related to permanency as a priority. In addition, Ms. Miller founded the Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective for pregnant and parenting teens. She is incredibly skilled in building community connections, soliciting voices of people with lived experience and advancing a holistic, strategic vision to strengthen and empower families.

Ms. Miller earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Print Journalism from Wayne State University, where she was a Rosa Parks Scholar at The Detroit News. She earned her law degree from Syracuse University, is a board member for Strategies for Youth and Syracuse University Law Alumni Association, and an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Jack and Jill of America.