Elizabeth Miller

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Tallahassee, FL  32399-2400

Biography

Elizabeth Miller is currently an Environmental Manager in the Biology Laboratory of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee, Florida.  She holds a Bachelor degree in Biology from Florida State University.  She began her work in Environmental Health in June, 2004 as an Environmental Health Inspector with the Madison County Health Department.  After a year, she was promoted to the position of Environmental Health Director and served in that position until October, 2007 when she decided to return to her position at Environmental Protection where she had previously worked for 14 years.  Ms. Miller is a member of the Florida Environmental Health Association.  In her current position, she is responsible for supervision of taxonomists in the laboratory, writing and reviewing technical reports dealing with surface water quality, and has been chosen to be involved with the Harmful Algal Bloom Task Force, which involves several different state agencies including Environmental Protection, Health, and Agricultures.  She also acts as assistant programmer of the Statewide Biological Database, which houses taxonomic and water quality data for water bodies that have been sampled in the state of Florida.

Leadership Development Opportunities

Participation in the Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute has challenged by mind in many ways.  I’ve learned to think through problems differently, and I’ve learned that some of my characteristics that I thought were weaknesses are only weaknesses if I don’t understand them and know how to make them work for me.  During the course of this program, I left the Department of Health and returned to my previous job at the Department of Environmental Protection.  As a result of working in Environmental Health for three years and participating in this program, I am much more aware of the intertwining responsibilities of the two agencies, and I have many more connections.  I know that the leadership skills I have learned will be valuable to me wherever I go.  Working with the team I was blessed to be associated with has been a wonderful experience.  We meshed so well as a group, and we understood and supported each others strengths and weaknesses.  I am truly grateful to Keith Keene, David Overfield, Trevor Coke, and Dr. Sarah Kotchian for their support and the way in which they challenged me to think.