Mary Miller’s brief biography:
Mary Miller has been a full time middle level art educator at Coopersville Area Public Schools for 31.3 years, retiring in June of 2010. She is the pastNAEA Middle Level Director, and is a Past President of Michigan Art Education Association, past NAEA Delegate, and past NAEA Western Region Middle Level Director. She has served on numerous committees and boards, including the NAEA Professional Standards,NAEA Art Teacher Preparation Standards, NAEA Platform Working Group and NAEA Instructional Resource Gallery.
Mary initiated and maintained six statewide student art exhibits for 6 years in locations such as the Governor’s office, State Superintendent’s Office, and Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries office, and the State Advocacy Exhibit for Youth Art Month. She currently is the Chair of the Festival Youth Arts Exhibit in Grand Rapids.
Mary has facilitated several statewide Art Supply drives to benefit art classrooms in need. She has served on annual state conference planning teams from 1998-2008, and co-chaired the 2004 MAEA state conference. Mrs. Miller has been involved in the review of Michigan’s art standards and benchmarks and the alignment of the art standards with English/Language Arts and Math Grade Level Content Expectations through the Michigan Department of Education.
Mary has given countless presentations at state and national art conferences and has received several awards at the state and national levels, including: 1992 Citizen of the Year Award by Coopersville Jaycees, 2002 ArtServe Michigan’s Educator of the Year, 2003 MAEA Middle Level Art Educator of the Year, 2003 NAEA Western Region Middle Level Art Educator of the Year, and 2008 National Art Education Association’s Middle Level Division Art Educator of the Year.
Now that Mary is retired, she enjoys time with family (especially with grandchildren), traveling, gardening and cooking. She lovescreating experimental watercolor paintings, and taking photographs of her pond and gardens and manipulating them on the computer into kaleidoscope patterns. She also continues to teach art lessons from her home studio, and taught drawing and painting at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in summer of 2012.
Contact information:
Mary L. Highfill Miller