Tekla Dennison Miller is the author of two memoirs: The Warden Wore Pink, about her corrections career, specifically the warden of two prisons, a men’s maximum and a women’s multi-level outside Detroit, Michigan, and A Bowl of Cherries, about the suicide of her mother and Tekla’s subsequent life with her sister, the mother of two and an abused spouse. The sisters’ journey (New York to California) takes them from a tragedy filled life to one of victory.
Tekla also taught in riot-torn South Central Los Angeles and worked with mentally challenged enlisted men in Germany. Tekla is a national speaker on women’s issues and criminal justice reform. She has had several nonfiction articles published in these areas, even in Dog Fancy and Good Dog magazines. When she retired and before she started writing, Tekla had to learn to type and operate a computer.
Tekla has appeared on National Public Radio and has been featured in many radio, newspaper and journal interviews. She was a technical consultant for a TV movie and series about a woman warden and for NBC’s news special about women prisoners. Tekla was among the women in law enforcement and criminal justice honored by the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2001 The Criminal Justice Women of Michigan again honored Tekla with the Josephine Davis Community Service Award. In May 2007 Tekla was the commencement speaker at Cazenovia College, NY and was awarded an honorary doctor of humane studies degree.
She lives, snowshoes and hikes in Colorado with her husband and three adopted Golden Retrievers.Website