Richard Miller

A Career of Achievement, Passion, and Purpose

Rick Miller

Rick Miller is the founder of THE INTERSECTION CONSTRUCT a private consulting firm that offers a wide range of services within education, juvenile justice, justice, child welfare, behavioral health, recreation, and other human service sectors, institutions, and organizations that serve youth.

Rick is also a professor of practice at the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University and the Dean of The MASTER’s Institute, an annual event that attracts our country’s top practitioners and researchers. 

Rick founded and created Kids at Hope, an international child, and youth development movement and research project that studies family, school, and community cultures to better understand the dynamics of success and failure.

Rick has spent 52 years in the field of child and youth development and social and organizational behavior as a practitioner, researcher, professor, public policy expert, and author. Included in Rick’s career is that he served as executive director of the City of Phoenix’s Violence Prevention Initiative and an executive with Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Rick’s research is revolutionizing the understanding of child and youth development and work cultures. His work has been introduced in 24 states, the District of Columbia, and four countries. His work has been cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics in a book published on youth resiliency and adopted by the Arizona Supreme Court to redefine the juvenile justice system from risk to HOPE.

He is the author of three books and two comic books including “Youth Development - from the trenches” and “The Soul, Science, and Culture of HOPE.”

Rick has received Arizona State University’s Visionary Award; the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King, Jr. Living the Dream Award; and the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge, George Washington Medal.

Among his many keynotes, workshops, seminars, and symposiums, Rick delivered a TEDx Talk. Rick lives in Phoenix with his wife, Esther. They have two children and four grandchildren.