Washington County ISU Extension and Outreach has found its new director.

Andy Miller began his duties as the county director on February 3rd, a position that was served for many years by Nancy Adrian, who passed away in 2019. Miller and his wife Cheyenne reside on a family farm near Brighton, and since 2005 he served as the probation/parole officer for the Department of Corrections 8th Judicial District. Prior to that he served as a residential officer and youth care worker. Miller feels his personality and leadership skills made him a good fit for Extension, and he looks forward to getting involved with the programs the office provides, especially with pandemic recovery, “We have been away from each other and we’ve all missed out on a lot of things. So that’s one of the programs I’d kind of like to get back into is kind of that mental health for the 4-H that maybe they couldn’t show animals that they had been working so hard for, they couldn’t show projects or it’s just not the same year as it was last year. And the same thing in the community, you know our master gardeners haven’t been able to meet and participate in groups like they had before. So just trying to let them know that we’re all on the same page, we’ll get past this, and 2021 is hopefully a new year for everyone.”

Besides raising three daughters, Miller has also been a volunteer on the Washington Fire Department since 2015, and is trained in trench and dive team rescue, and CPR. He’s also mental health first aid certified, and looks forward to someday coaching softball for his daughter’s teams and continuing to volunteer for many other community activities.