Joyce Beery Miles
Joyce Beery Miles of Lafayette, Indiana, is president of her consulting and training company, Joyce B. Miles and Associates: A Leadership Development Group. She is a Purdue Consumer and Family Sciences (CFS) alumna, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1965, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993. She has a Masters degree from Florida State University
Miles retired after 31 years from the Duval County schools in Jacksonville, Florida, where she was the supervisor for Family and Consumer Sciences and coordinator for the Blueprint for Career Preparation. Today, her company provides training and technical support in the areas of employability skills, job-search techniques and building leadership capacity. She has presented these topics to more than 5,000 attendees in local, state, and national audiences. She also co-authored a family and consumer sciences textbook adopted in numerous states.
Speaking to national audiences about networking, collaboration and becoming an advocate for children and families is also important to Miles. Her presentations on building leadership capacity are highly sought after as she travels as a former American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) board member. She has organized and presented at numerous major international leadership training conferences for AAFCS.
She actively works for women and philanthropy initiatives at Purdue University, Florida State University, and the University of Georgia. She serves on the Women of Purdue steering committee designed to advance women in the spirit of giving. She served for 8 years on the Florida State University Foundation board of trustees where she was the founding member of Women for FSU. Today, this effort supports an endowment nearing $300,000, supporting a Women’s Leadership Institute at FSU.
Miles has received numerous awards for her leadership and public service. In June 1999, she received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Duval County Cooperative Extension. In 2010, AAFCS awarded Joyce their prestigious Distinguished Service Award in addition to the Wiley-Berger Award for Volunteerism.
In preparation for the AAFCS Centennial Celebration in 2009, Miles committed many hours researching the founder of home economics, Ellen Swallow Richards. Miles produced a DVD on Richards’ life and legacy and travels throughout the country and internationally portraying Richards in her own words. This effort earned over $40,000, in support of an endowed Leadership Fund with AAFCS.
After relocating to Lafayette in 2017, Miles is active on the Purdue Campus with Twin Pines Cooperative Housing, the Purdue Musical Organization, Center for Families Advisory Council and the Purdue Student Life Advisory Council. She and husband, Bob, mentor their two scholarship students as well as numerous other Purdue students.