Ricci Miller

Earth Systems/Biology/AP Biology

Mrs. Miller grew up in a suburb north of Chicago (GO CUBBIES!). After high school, she earned her BS degree in Biology with a minor in Psychology from DePaul University. After that, she studied another year post-graduate at Loyola University to become a Medical Technologist. Ricci has worked in several hospital laboratories over the years, and eventually specialized in finding rare blood groups for patients with rare blood types while managing a Blood Center Reference Lab. Part of my job in the Reference Lab was teaching new technologists and that's when I discovered her love of teaching.

Mrs. Miller says she is relatively new to the teaching profession because it is her second career. So she went back to school for a couple of years to get certified to teach secondary science: Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Environmental Science.

Ricci has been teaching high school science for the past seven years and says, “I’ve enjoyed every minute (well...maybe not EVERY minute).” She taught Integrated Science and Forensics in Wisconsin, and then Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and AP Biology in a very large charter school in Florida. Her family relocated to Utah in the fall of 2008, where she was lucky enough to find a position at RCHS teaching Biology and Earth Systems.

Mrs. Miller says, “I am a big fan of charter schools. While student-teaching in Wisconsin, I taught at a small charter school that had grades K-12 in one school. While in Florida, I taught at a charter high school that was part of city-wide charter school system. Both experiences taught me that students and teachers benefit from a setting in which smaller class sizes and advisory/mentoring programs are in place. This allows for a more personalized learning (and teaching) experience.”

When she’s not grading papers or writing lesson plans, Ricci loves to be in the garden-- especially an herb garden. She was excited for her first summer in Utah so she could grow all of the beautiful flowers, herbs and vegetables she loved growing as a child. (Florida was not the best place to grow lavender!) Ricci also enjoys spending time with her daughter, Tyler, browsing through antique shops, and playing Foosball with her son, Cameron and husband. She also likes simply sitting down with a good book or listening to music. All of the places she’s lived previously had very flat terrain, so Ricci looks forward to getting out and hiking some of the beautiful parks in Utah. She thinks her kids are more interested in seeing the sites on the back of an ATV, but that sounds good, too.