International Women’s Day: Meet Julie Miller of Adera Designs

Starting on International Women’s Day, The Off Ramp is publishing a four-week series featuring women founders we’re honored to know and work with through our marketing and commerce arm Threads by Nomad. Each week, we’re sharing a short interview, introducing the brand behind the products, and offering a small discount to help more people discover their work.

Last week, we opened the series with Kari Masson of Kayoong, whose work creates flexible, dignified employment for women while funding scholarships for orphans and children of widows in Senegal. If you missed it, you can read that interview here.

This week, we’re featuring Adera Designs, an Ethiopian company that believes in taking the ordinary and making it beautiful.

Adera Design: upcycled paper, dignified work, and families kept together

Adera’s artisans upcycle paper sourced from the United States to create thoughtful, creative pieces for retail partners in the U.S. The work is beautiful, but the vision behind it is even more compelling.

Adera provides each woman with a monthly salary that supports her family’s daily needs and helps her save for the future. Alongside employment, Adera offers a 20-week life skills training designed to help women use their income successfully and strategically.

And then there’s the part of the story that is hard to forget.

Before Adera, many mothers faced an impossible choice. In order to meet their children’s needs, some women felt pressured to hand their children over to a local government orphanage. Adera eliminated the need for that desperate decision by creating a structure that supports both work and family.

Adera provides safe daycare so mothers can pursue work with peace of mind. Through sponsor support, parents are able to work while preserving and strengthening the family unit. Adera describes its aim simply and clearly: to bring help and true hope, one woman at a time.

Founder Interview: Julie Miller, Adera Designs

Your story: What are you building, and what first pushed you to start?

I joined Adera in 2012 with the understanding of helping with logistics for 6 months. That was 14 years ago. Adera has grown and I have grown. I love working with women and children to be everything they were meant to be. We began with 55 moms and children in a daycare. We now have 110 children/moms in the Adera daycare, 58 in PreK and KG, and 288 in private schools.

What matters most: What’s one value you won’t compromise on in your work (and why)?Jesus first. He is the reason we do what we do. The two greatest commandments and my personal mission statement is to Love God and Love People. Also to walk in humility and none of what I do is about me. It is His and His alone.

A moment you’re proud of: What’s a win you want to celebrate?

Being in Addis Ababa January 2026 and seeing 35 new moms that joined Adera in October 2025 stand and share how they just finished their Open Door training (economic development) and how they came with absolutely no hope and they now have hope. Also they never referred to the westerners. Over and over they thanked the Ethiopian staff for their love and support. That is the way Adera was set up. Ethiopians serving Ethiopians.

What you’ve learned: What’s one lesson you’ve learned the hard way that you’d share with another woman building something?

A truth I learned early on is to keep accountability very present. Require monthly expense reports from your team and do not send funding till the reports are sent and accounted for. Require monthly bank statements and compare to the budget to make clear we are all on the same track. This has helped me a lot with our team and accountability.A recent learning curve was our emails were hacked and there were large bank issues. We learned and now apply that if a request is made for over $100 we make a call and get a verbal. Three of our emails were hacked and my lady with QuickBooks was getting “emails” from outside the country that looked like they were directly from me and my finance manager. Tough lesson. Also we now have cyber insurance, yes, there is such a thing.

Just for fun: What’s your go-to snack/drink while you work—or a tiny ritual that keeps you going?

Coffee and cashews.

Adera Design is 20% off through Saturday at midnight

To celebrate International Women’s Day and Week Two of our founder series, all Adera Design products are 20% off on Threads by Nomad through Saturday night at midnight.

If you’ve been looking for a small piece that feels bright, thoughtful, and genuinely useful, this is a good week to shop. Your purchase supports women in Addis Ababa as they earn a stable monthly income, build practical skills through Adera’s life skills training, and keep their families together with the support of safe childcare.

Follow along for the full series

As we continue this founder series, we hope these stories do more than introduce products. We hope they deepen your sense of what’s possible when women have access to dignified work, practical support, and the chance to build a future without surrendering the people they love most.

Next week, we’ll publish the third interview in the series.