Join us in welcoming Joseph Miller to the Extension Iron County team! Joseph started his new role as Community Development Educator this week, and is excited to connect organizations and individuals with resources they need, with a focus on economic development.

Get to Know Community Development Educator, Joseph Miller

Joseph’s background is all over the place, the result of a childhood split between suburban Chicago and Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula. He served in the United States Marine Corps as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Specialist, which led to a lot of time in front of a classroom teaching contaminated environment survival tactics when he wasn’t doing hazmat cleanup operations in the field.

Next, Joseph did a brief stint as a bartender at Wisconsin’s most notorious friendliest little Northwoods bar—Little Bohemia Lodge—before finding his way to undergraduate studies at North Central College in Naperville, IL for English with a concentration in writing. After testing eLearning software for five years, Joseph moved on to a career in library systems support with SWAN Library Services and attended graduate studies in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before finding his way back to the Northwoods and serving as Director of the Hurley Public Library. Other titles he’s proud to claim: 2020 Census Field Enumerator, Moderate Cognitive Impairment (MoCI) Special Education Long-Term Substitute, Video Game Features Intern, and Blockbuster Video Customer Service Representative.

In Joseph’s spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, hiking, camping, skateboarding and spending time with his wife, Carly and son, Wendell.