A Mothers Love, Geraldine 'Tincy' Millers Story

One woman’s quest to give every child a chance to learn. 

Geraldine “Tincy” Miller defines tenacity.  As chair of the State Board of Education, a leader in Highland Park and an active supporter of the arts, she never quits, always giving her best.  Before all else, however, Tincy Miller is a mother.  A mother whose quest to find answers for her son, has driven her to provide every child in Texas with a chance to learn.

Tincy’s journey began when her son, Vance Jr., started having problems in the classroom, and at home.  Leaving no stone unturned, she spent years searching for solutions.  What Tincy didn’t know, however, was that her son’s rebellion masked an inner struggle to learn.

After enrolling in a dyslexia program at Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Tincy began working alongside doctors, teaching children to read, write and spell phonetically.  When Tincy shared her son’s experiences, her colleagues identified the invisible disability plaguing her son as dysgraphia, a form of dyslexia.

“Here I was working with dyslexic kids, and my own son was suffering with it without my knowledge,” she said.  “I just couldn’t see the forest for the trees.”

The diagnosis brought freedom that stirred both mother and son to pursue higher education.  Vance Jr., went on to Southern Methodist University, eventually working with his father at Miller Companies, Inc. Tincy, however, followed her newly found passion for dyslexia to Texas A&M University-Commerce.

“I saw the lack of sympathy for students with dyslexia, and I wanted to learn ways to keep these students from falling thought the cracks,” she said.

As the working mother of four children,