Student Spotlight
Jacque Miller, candidate for B.S. in Holistic Nutrition
The president and founder of Career Dimensions of Arizona is a woman who knows herself well. As a long-term survivor of what was diagnosed as terminal breast cancer, Jacque Miller saved her life by changing her life. She defied doctors’ grim assessments and even wrote a book about her journey, entitled The Lopsided Gal.
This human behavior specialist travels the globe, teaching banks, airlines and many other types of corporations how to groom future generations of leadership – her own areas of leadership training include time management and stress management.
“CDA teaches from a holistic point of view,” she explains, “which means that we teach homeostasis, balance. Self-care becomes all the more important in times of worldwide turbulence. To a great extent, we can control our health. So many other things are out of our control.”
For instance: it’s hard to make good business decisions from a position of fear or anxiety. It’s hard to stay focused at work if your body lacks the right nutrition, or if your attentions are too divided by family concerns.
Jacque’s parents taught her an infallible coping mechanism for any circumstance: to have faith. “I have learned not to worry about things I can’t change. If I can change something by working on it, that’s what I do. If I can’t change something, I turn it over to God.”
To regain her health following surgery, Jacque radically changed her diet. As her daily journaling ultimately became an inspirational book, her priorities also shifted. From a Type-A personality that placed work ahead of family, she learned how to apply “the worst case scenario” and how to make better decisions accordingly.
One decision was to harness her years of informal study on subjects related to diet, energy management and healing. Jumping in with both feet, Jacque enrolled in a series of degree programs at Clayton College: following completion of her bachelor’s degree in holistic nutrition, she already intends to pursue graduate studies in holistic nutrition. She also plans to slow down some day and write more books.
For now, this road warrior enjoys studying online, from airplanes and hotel rooms, as well as from home. She and her husband care for an ailing parent on the weekends, and they are concerned about their grandchildren learning good nutrition habits amidst the fast-paced world that today’s families are coping with.
“I remember, as a kid, that the worst thing we could do was smoke a cigarette or sneak a beer,” says Jacque. “The world, now, is so confusing and the stakes are so much higher. Young people can literally die from unprotected sex. College kids are subjected to binge parties with drugs we never heard of, and drugs that can create violently antisocial behavior. Compared to all that, drive-through ‘convenience’ food might seem like a pretty benign choice. But of course, it too is lethal. We all need to slow down, and there’s no question about it. We need to prepare meals together and use natural ingredients and enjoy each other’s company. Creating a solid foundation within the comfort of home is our best preparation for getting out there and changing the world.”
Jacque’s company teaches people that to change their behavior, individuals must first understand the complexities of how and why they, themselves, react in certain ways. Self-mastery is the first step toward helping employees get along at a heartfelt level, she says, and to better understand others’ motivations, in seeking ways to orchestrate top-level performance and next-generation leadership. As a ministry, Jacque also finds time to take this training to church groups of all ages.
To learn more about her company, visit www.cdoaz.com.
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