Staff Biographies
Jan Miller
Jan is director and co-owner, along with her husband Dick, of Jan Miller & Associates. She designs and delivers programs geared towards acquiring and maintaining employment, as well as maintaining a private counselling practice. She also acts as a motivational speaker, marketing administrator, and NLP trainer.
Over the course of her working life Jan has acquired various titles and labels, including psychiatric nursing assistant, counsellor for the developmentally handicapped, vocational rehabilitation counsellor, life skills coach, sign language teacher, sign language interpreter, Director of Provincial Interpreting Services, and Master Practioner and Trainer of NLP (specializing in NLP effect on health).
Jan is a wife of 35 years and has two amazing grown children who support and assist in various ways with her business. She has devoted a lot of her life to the study of paranormal studies and has been a member and student of the American Society of Dowers (ASD) since the 1970's and is a member and student with medical intuitives and healers from the Ozarack Research Institute. She has participated in and led personal growth retreats over the past 20 years. She also belongs to the International Association of NLP and Health (IASH) and completed a 6-month research project involving patients with dual diagnosis and chronic and acute health problems, referred by their physicians, in which all participants had statistically significant results and improvement in their conditions. Jan loves to travel and learn.
Dick Miller
Co-owner of Jan Miller & Associates, he is Jan's life partner of 35 years. Dick manages the financial side of the business and deals with the bureaucratic aspects of being in business. He is a very important support of Jan's sanity. Besides Jan, his next love is the theatre. He has been acting in local theatres since 1977 and has been involved in all aspects of putting on shows.
Lisa Miller
Lisa, Jan and Dick's daughter, does all the data entry and making sure her parents are responsible in managing their funds. She works at Queen's University in the Psychology Department.
Anna Lindsay
Anna joined Jan Miller & Associates in September 2005 as our Administrative Assistant. Anna is considered one of the success stories of Deaf/Blind Services because she is one of the few clients employed. Anna does not see herself as disabled and is training the rest of the staff in our office to be more effective communicators and experience the world in different ways. Anna’s guide dog, Wilma acts as an office dog once she’s here and provides free pet therapy for anyone interested.
Theresa Upton
Thereas Upton is an American Sign Language Instructor. She taught for 15 years for the Canadian Hearing society, Queen's University, and St. Lawrence College. Theresa worked and trained with interpreters since 1993. She is a very creative person. She is an ASL storyteller and poet and translates Christmas songs into Sign Language. Theresa is a mother and she is profoundly Deaf. Theresa believes that the gap between Deaf people and people who can hear is a result of the communication barriers each face. Her teaching style includes humor and patience, which creates a comfortable learning environment.
Carolyn Watkins
Carolyn Watkins is a teacher working with the Limestone District School Board. Before teaching, she enjoyed interpreting and working with the Deaf community. She has been working with JMA since it opened in October 2000. She has had the opportunity to do a number of different jobs and has learned a great deal working in a supportive environment and with people who have diverse backgrounds. She is fascinated with language and how people communicate. She is grateful for the opportunities she has had and for the people she has taught and learned from.
