Teresa Miller

Teresa Ann Miller (February 20, 1962 – August 6, 2021) was an American professor, author, legal scholar, educator, and administrator. At the time of her death in August 2021, she was senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and chief diversity officer to State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor Jim Malatras. She previously served as vice chancellor and chief of staff to Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson.

Before moving to SUNY in 2018, Miller had been vice provost for inclusive excellence at the University of Buffalo. She had been a professor of law at the University at Buffalo Law School since 1995.

As a law professor at Buffalo, Miller taught broadly but was probably best known for her work on prison law and her efforts within the Attica Correctional Facility.

Early life and education Teresa Ann Miller was born in Fort Benning on February 20, 1962. She was raised in the tidewater region of Virginia and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Career After graduating from law school, Miller taught at the University of Miami School of Law from 1986 to 1988. From 1990 to 1991, she worked as a judicial law clerk at the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida for Judge William Hoeveler.

In March 2014, Miller was appointed the University of Buffalo’s first vice provost for equity and inclusion, a title that was changed in 2017 to vice provost for inclusive excellence.

As vice provost, Miller established the Office of Inclusive Excellence and created the university’s first strategic diversity and inclusion plan.

In 2016, Miller launched the Difficult Conversations (DIFCON) Series. These university-wide discussions invited students, staff, and faculty to come together and share their opinions on controversial topics in a safe and civil environment.

In January, 2018, Miller accepted the position of senior vice chancellor and chief of staff to SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson. By 2017, the Glimmerglass Festival performers had performed three times in the prison.

Prison documentary

In 2009, Miller produced and co-directed a 24-minute short documentary entitled Encountering Attica. The documentary takes place within the Attica Correctional Facility, where Miller had worked extensively. The documentary focused on the year-long interactions between three first year Buffalo law students and Attica inmates who were serving life sentences.

In addition to teaching prison law and advocating for the rights of prisoners, Miller also analyzed the experiences of correction officers who work within the prison system; she concluded that officers and prisoners face many of the same experiences and difficulties.

Personal life Miller married Daniel Mikofsky in 1998 and they had three children. They separated in 2013. Chapter 1: “Collateral Civil Penalties as Techniques of Social Policy” Chapter 3: “By Any Means Necessary: Collateral Civil Penalties of Non-US Citizens and the War on Terror”

Book chapters

"The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Immigration Policy", Ch. 13 in Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind (eds.) Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Incarceration, New Press (2002) “Incarcerated Masculinities ”, Ch.17 in Athena D. Mutua (ed.), Progressive Black Masculinities (Routledge Publishing Co., 2006)