Dr. Pinky Miller is a former student of the real bullhorn-and baseball-bat-toting icon from the 1989 film Lean on Me, Dr. Joe Louis Clark. Born into a crowded single-parent household in the inner city of Paterson, New Jersey, young Pinky navigated a hopeless childhood craving for closeness to her overworked mother, escape from years of molestations by those she trusted, and to meet her unknown father whose absence from her life painfully reminded her that she was a mistake. One day, Pinky stepped into high school, and a principal with a bullhorn changed her life. “You were born,” Dr. Clark bellowed, “with two strikes against you: poor and Black! Don’t strike out! Get your education! Your education is your home run out of the ghetto!” Encouraged by caring teachers and inspired and empowered by Dr. Clark’s sharp admonitions, personal attention, and fatherly love, Pinky graduated from Eastside High School. She earned a BA in communication, an MA in counseling and school guidance, and a PhD in educational policy studies—higher education. After finding fulfillment in Dr. Clark’s invitation to “lean on him” Pinky Miller also found her purpose and discovered that no person is a mist,ake. This is her story.