Where ADSF Started and Where We Are Today

Today we bring you another segment of the Plain Roots conference that we held in June. This was a presentation that started with the co-founders, Emma Miller and Naomi Kramer Yoder, followed by a presentation from me about the present, and Eythana Miller spoke about the future. You can learn more about how Emma and Naomi founded ADSF in this blog post.

Emma Miller left the Amish when she was 16 so she could continue her education. She is now working for Shell Foundation in London, UK working with entrepreneurs who bring access to clean energy in low-income areas in Africa and India. Her Amish background drives her to fight for equality in economic and educational opportunities for everyone worldwide. She has a Masters degree in Economics and Finance from London Metropolitan University and a BA in Economics from San Diego State University. She strongly believes that education should be available to everyone who wants it.

Naomi Yoder grew up Amish in Jamesport, Missouri. In 2012, she graduated with her nursing degree from Goshen College. Her education included a semester in Peru, where she learned to speak Spanish. She started her nursing career as a med-surg nurse, but has since developed a passion for labor and delivery. Naomi helped open a birth center in Nappanee, Indiana in 2016 and was one of the first nurses hired there. She attended the very first birth at that center and has attended hundreds of births since. She works with the Plain communities and speaks to mothers in their own language. She has become both accepted and loved as a birth worker by Plain women. She is working on her Masters to become a Certified Nurse Midwife. Naomi understands the struggles and hard work that the college journey takes with only an eighth-grade education.

You know me by now, so I’ll skip my introduction.

Eythana Miller grew up in Libby, Montana, in an unconventional Amish community and moved to California at 17. She attended Shasta College in Redding before transferring to Berkeley to study political economy, and she graduated in spring of 2025. She is a 2025 recipient of the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize, through which she is working on an oral history and language preservation project centered on her hometown called Heritage in Translation. She enjoys literature, both journalistic and creative writing, and learning about development economics. Education has been deeply formative and meaningful for her, and she is delighted to work with ADSF to help bring that opportunity to more people. 

And here is the video of our presentations. Please share as far and wide as you want to. It is always helpful to get the word out about ADSF. As always, if you are interested in donating to ADSF, please visit our Donate Page. We thank you for your generous support.

Starting with Emma’s video from the UK: