Jean Hamilton

Biography

Jean grew up on Eastern Long Island, New York and spent her junior year of high school as a Rotary Exchange Student in Sweden. She graduated from Smith College with an A.B. degree, majoring in economics, and spent her Junior Year Abroad in Geneva, Switzerland. After college, she worked for Chemical Bank in New York City before moving to California for graduate school. Jean received a Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley and worked as an assistant professor of economics at Occidental College in California. She moved to Chapel Hill in 2001 with her husband, Wayne Miller, and their two sons and soon became involved with the school system and the community. She was elected to serve on the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Board of Education from 2005-2009 and was appointed in 2010-2011 and 2019. She served on the Board of Directors of Women AdvaNCe and on the Board of Directors of the Arts Center in Carrboro. She is a long-time volunteer for the Orange County Democratic Party and was chair of the Booker Creek (now part of Cedar Falls) precinct. Jean is a member of the NAACP and a regular participant with the Triangle Insight Meditation Community. Jean wrote and received a NIH minority supplement grant in 2003 and worked as a public health researcher at UNC Chapel Hill studying how childcare settings impact infant care and feeding. She received a Masters in Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill in 2010 and worked for Aging Family Services (now LifeLinks), a geriatric care management firm in Raleigh, as a guardian of the person for adults for several years. Jean also worked as a social worker for Duke Hospice and a student counselor at UNC Greensboro before starting a private psychotherapy and counseling practice in Chapel Hill.