Meet Alana Miller

July/August 2007 - RWM Focus

Alana Miller: Love, Life and Music

Home Grown Talent

Miller was born and grew up in Brockport. While attending SUNY Brockport, Miller wasn't quite sure what her career held for her, but she knew she had a passion for the arts.

She had been performing in regional and community theaters since she was a child.

"My first stage performance was the lead in Cinderella when I was 11," Miller recalls. "I wore my mother's wedding dress as my

costume!"

But it was the mentoring of a guest professor from England that set the stage for her future.

"He inspired me and reaffirmed that I should be an actress."

That inspiration would take her to an overseas drama study program in England, followed by a year at the Nazareth College Art Center in Rochester, where she dallied in some commercial work, and sang with the band The Outcasts, (now The Caste). But, as many an aspiring talent will attest, if you want to make it big, you've got to go big a la the Big Apple. Miller spent 10 years in New York City doing what most fame seekers do-waiting tables and other odd jobs by day and performing at night. She also married. That union took her to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. There, being a woman, she was immersed in a cultural and religious life that that was very different from the lifestyle she had enjoyed in America.

A Wife and Mother in the Middle East

In Dubai, Miller's most memorable singular experience is the birth of her son. Many, if not most mothers would call their child's birth a memorable time, but Miller truly "sweated" it out.

"It was 124 degrees outside, and I went into premature labor," Miller recalls. Her son was coming into the world two months early and, because it was an emergency, Miller was taken to a government hospital.

"There was no air conditioning at the facility, and despite my dire situation, the culture mandated that I be shroud. So there I was, in labor, in sizzling heat, and covered up with sheets!" She wouldn't trade it for the world as she proudly shares photos of herself toting a healthy baby Lee while perusing hand woven rugs at an outdoor marketplace in Dubai.

In Dubai Miller also served as Manager of the American Business Council-UAE. In 1998, Miller returned to Rochester with Lee, and as a single

mother.

A Golden Opportunity

Back in Rochester, a funny thing happened on the way to the office...Miller bumped in to an old friend, Kathy Goforth, whom she had worked with in the early 90's at the Chamber of Commerce in Rochester.

"I asked her if she was looking for work because I knew of something that would be perfect for her

personality and skill set," says Goforth. That something was managing High Tech Rochester -- known as the Incubator at the Lennox Tech Enterprise Center. Miller went through several rounds of interviews, and her prospective employer told her she would be working closely with the Cabot Group. Miller says a "golden" opportunity sealed the deal.

"One day, I was in a parking lot and found a key on the ground. I went inside the nearby building to return it, and it was the offices of the Cabot Group. I thought, 'DESTINY!'"

Drama Meets Data

As Client Services Specialist, Miller's initial duties at HTR incorporated utilizing her dramatic background to serve as a conduit for communication between clients.

"It's interesting. So often in the technology world, many people have a difficult time effectively communicating their thoughts and ideas. My experience in the entertainment field gave many business people a voice that could be heard and understood," Miller says.

Though she served as a communicative conduit for many, her skills transcend keeping words from being lost in translation.

"Alana is multi-talented, not only in the arts. She has a human quality that is not only endearing but magnetic. She makes you feel like you are the only person in the world that matters at that moment-even when there are many things going on," notes Goforth.

One company that embraced the services of the Lennox Tech Enterprise Center and Miller's skills was Lumetrics, Inc. President John Hart says Miller possesses many qualities that helped impact their business-and others.

"Alana is tenacious. The word in the building was that if you were a CEO and you did not attend the CEO roundtable and other critical events, Alana would hunt you down and get you to the meeting. She did not take no easily for an answer."

Further, Hart says, Miller wasn't afraid to try new things herself, for the benefit of others.

"Alana organized--never having golfed--the first Lennox Tech CEO Golf Tournament-she even played in the event using my son's 'child sized' golf clubs," says Hart.

During her five years at HTC, Miller was promoted to Program Director, and won a national award for her achievements there. She served as a catalyst in bringing professionals together to successfully grow themselves and their businesses. But change is inevitable, and the spoils of love and children took the lead for Miller. With that, and a return to her true passion -- music, Miller left HTC.

"A Good Thing"

If you chance to hear Miller and her husband Bob playfully banter the lyrics of "Don't Mess with a Good Thing" from The Avengers debut CD, In From the Cold, some resonance of exactly what the couple has goin' on rings true-a very good thing.

Miller met Bob as a result of promoting an event while working at HTR six years ago. Months after the event, a mutual friend-Goforth--connected them. Alana and Bob shared a passion for music, as well as each other, and were married in July of 2003. A photograph of Alana on her wedding day hangs discreetly on a dining room wall in their Brighton home, but it is radiant and captures the pure joy and love that she holds for her husband. Their blended family includes Lee, now 10, and Oksana, 9.

The Avengers

How did their band come together? Miller laughs as she shares the story.

"When you're Italian, there are two sure things at any event -- food and music. I told Bob that I wanted to sing a few songs at our wedding, so he pulled out his guitar. He had studied music at Berkeley some years back, and together they sang for their guests. The love bug wasn't the only thing that had bitten them. Bob and Alana formed Blue Muze Productions, and the Avengers were born. Today they play locally, but Miller has bigger plans for the band, too.

"We're back in the studio, and writing again," she says.

Giving and Gigs

When Miller isn't volunteering in her children's classrooms, or performing with the band, she is actively working to help women in Rochester gain independence and develop self confidence. She sits on the board of the Rochester Women's Network and Alternatives for Battered Women. One of Miller's main mantras is courage.

"I have traveled the world, and it's still a man's world," she says,

pausing.

"Don't misunderstand me-I love men. It's just that I want women to feel free to express themselves in whatever their choices. I see women too often trying to conform in the business world. I think it's important for them to know that they can be leaders and still embrace their feminine side."

It's a message that's music to Rochester women's ears. Encore, Alana, Encore!