Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mrs. Phyllis Miller upon receiving the Zella Butler Bronfman Award, presented by the UJA-Federation's Task Force on People With Disabilities and the J.E. and Z.B. Butler Foundation.
Throughout her 25-year career, Phyllis Miller has worked tirelessly on behalf of people with developmental disabilities. She taught Judaic studies and Hebrew language to both special and regular education elementary school students, beginning in 1973 at the Armed Forces Center for English as a Second Language in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She later taught at Temple Beth EI Hebrew School in Springfield, Massachusetts; Hillel Academy in Passaic, New Jersey; and Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge, New Jersey
In 1997, Mrs. Miller took a position as a Family and Child Advocate at the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, which she represents on the UJA Task Force on Disabilities. In this capacity, she assists people with special needs and their families in finding the programs and schools that best serve them. She also coordinates the Association of Jewish Special Educators and the Jewish Parent Advocate Coalition, through which she arranges in-service workshops for teachers and an annual Parent Empowerment Conference and Resource Fair for parents and social service providers. She also acts as the liaison to social service agencies and to families searching for special needs services.
A graduate of Stern College at Yeshiva University with a degree in Psychology and Judaic Studies, Mrs. Miller has five wonderful children, one of whom is currently studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Phyllis and her husband, Michael, have done tremendous work in forging relationships within Jewish communities both here and in Israel.
I am pleased to honor Mrs. Phyllis Miller for her many years of outstanding service, and to thank her for her extraordinary dedication to the developmentally disabled.