Restoring Opportunity: Tiffany Miller and CEO’s Work With Returning Citizens

In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, 70% of people returning from incarceration are released to opportunity desert neighborhoods, where high unemployment rates increase their difficulty in finding employment and successfully reintegrating into society.

Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) addresses this issue by providing transition services exclusively to citizens returning from incarceration. CEO incorporates life skills education, paid transitional employment, and full-time job placement and retention services to ensure that participants can successfully reintegrate. With help from CEO, participants are less likely to become re-incarcerated and more likely to build a foundation for a stable, productive life for themselves and their families.

Grounded in Values, Driven by Community

Tiffany Miller grew up in Salisbury, NC, where she attended Catawba College and majored in psychology and sociology. This education solidified her person-centered perspective, a focus on how helping one individual will impact the greater community. It also established the importance of mental health. She worked most of her life in the service sector and joined CEO as a job coach in 2021. She is now the site director of one of CEO’s top sites in the nation. 

During our interview with her, Tiffany quoted her grandparents several times, stating that they were two of the most influential people in her life. Their emphasis on hard work and the importance of service impact her to this day, “Every single job that I’ve ever had has been in service to individuals, to those in our community.” Her Christian faith is also a driving factor behind her individual-focused approach, “Everything I do comes from a Christlike perspective. I want to make sure that I leave people better than when I found them and that I see them for who they are and see them for where they can be and who they were created to be.”

In her role as Charlotte Site Director, Tiffany has learned the necessity of making leadership her own while respecting the existing foundation. Her leadership practice is team-oriented, she focuses on ensuring that her team has the resources and support they need. She is intimately aware of the work each of her team members does and is able to step in when needed. Tiffany also emphasizes the need to be personally aware and connected to one’s motivations. “I tell my team almost every single morning—remember your why. When you realize why you’re here and it brings you joy to be here, then you’re… motivated to do those things that make your why successful.”

Growing up in Salisbury, Tiffany always saw Charlotte as the “big city.” During her time living in Charlotte, she has watched Charlotte truly grow in that direction, however this growth has also resulted in a loss of community. When asked what advice she would give to young professionals hoping to enter the non-profit sector, she emphasized the need for work that comes from the heart. “You see something that you have a passion for, and you walk in that passion and that purpose every day and knowing that sometimes it might not come back to you monetarily, but finding joy, finding happiness, finding peace of mind in what you do, then you’ll get to that goal and you’ll reach that perspective that you need.”

Tiffany’s work at CEO reflects her deep commitment to service, a commitment that is grounded in faith and family values. The same values lie behind her person-centered approach. Her story and practice of leadership is a powerful demonstration of how impactful action is grounded in personal reflection and emphasizes the importance of knowing one’s own motivation.