Cody Miller named to New Leader Council
The New Leader Council is a group of young leaders that has more than 45 chapters nationwide. Cody Miller, a Williamstown resident and director of the Foundation and Alumni Relations at Rowan College at Gloucester County, is one of the New Jersey chapter’s 20 new fellows for the council.
The organization is tasked with training the next generation of leaders, which is important because millennials will represent the largest voting block in history at the next election, according to Miller. Miller described the group as a think-tank that focuses on issues such as criminal justice reform, health care, gender equity, democracy, the environment, voting rights, etc.
“We go through a rigorous training,” he said. “At the end, there’s a capstone project, you take an issue in local communities and we come up with a solution for the issue in your community.”
Upon finishing the training, Miller and his 19 classmates will become alumni of the group and are encouraged to network with fellow alumni and people in the program.
“It’s neat because it’s a national organization, there are chapters across the country,” Miller said. “They do a summit every single year. If I go, I’ll be able to network with individuals across the country.”
Each chapter selects between 15 and 20 people to join. According to Miller, many of the alumni have successful futures in their industry. He cited examples of members working in the governor’s office, policy makers in corporate entities, and leaders in education and health care.
“A lot of these people go on and do great things,” he said.
Miller learned about the New Leader Council in quite possibly the most millennial way possible — through social media.
“One of my friends, who is a councilman in Dumont, was also a member,” he said. “Through social media and things he said and did, I learned more about the organization.”
Miller’s acceptance into the New Leaders Council came with a tick of adversity as he was denied when he initially applied a few years ago. He was accepted the second time around.
“Failure to me is a good thing, I took it as a learning experience, I worked harder,” he said. “I worked hard to build my resume to do this. It shows that if you try, try, try again, eventually you’ll get where you want to be. That’s why I feel you should never give up.”
Miller brings a variety of achievements to the New Leader Council. For example, he was appointed the youngest college trustee in the state at the age of 21.
“We transformed the college itself by the name change and forming the partnership with Rowan University. Now it’s on the brink of another expansion. We lit the match to transform it,” Miller said.
He is also the president of the Volunteer Center of South Jersey and sat on Monroe Township Council for the past four years as an at-large councilman.
Miller is ready to get to work on the capstone project. He’s looking to find something near and dear to his heart. He even plans to present his findings to whomever can help the most, whether it’s the town council and mayor or the college president where he works.
