THE REV. DR. SANDY SIEGEL MILLER

Sandy Siegel Miller is a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, serving as ordained clergy at Church of Holy Nativity in Clarendon Hills. Sandy is passionate about Outreach, serving as co-chairperson of the Outreach committee and co-leader of the PADS (homeless shelter) ministry. On PADS days, she can usually be found in the CHN kitchen, working with the cooking team. She preaches every 4-6 weeks and enjoys singing in the choir. Sandy recently served on the Diocesan Task Force for the Diaconate, which presented their report and recommendations to the Bishop in June, 2023. In the world outside of CHN, Sandy is a clinical psychologist who has worked in her private practice in Hinsdale for more than 30 years, specializing in children and adolescents.

In 2016, Sandy and her husband, Jonathan, created the Sounds Good Choir organization for older adults and in 2018 added a second program, the Good Memories Choir, for people with early-stage memory loss and their care partners, singing together. The organization as a whole currently has 8 choirs in Chicago
and the suburbs, with over 300 singers.

In her roles as co-founder of Sounds Good Choir and Program Director of the Good Memories choirs, Sandy is the guiding spirit of the organization’s mission of great singing, joy, and community. She works on all facets of program strategy, including the online sing-along programs she created during the Covid lockdown in 2020, and she is excited about the new Spanish-language sing-along that is scheduled to begin in August, 2023.

Sandy also coordinates a team of neurology researchers who are studying the impact of choral singing on older adults. Sandy and co-leader, Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, a neurologist from Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, are pleased to be presenting a poster of the team’s first research project at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam, in July 2023, and are preparing to launch a pilot study this August.

In her “spare” time, Sandy enjoys gardening, travel, quilting, and hanging out with her family - in particular her amazing husband, Jonathan.