Teresa A. Miller, senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and chief diversity officer for the State University of New York, died this past summer in New York City, She was 59 years old and had suffered from cancer.
A native of Fort Benning, Georgia, Miller grew up in Virginia where her mother was a professor of sociology at Norfolk State University. She was a graduate of Duke University, where she majored in psychology, and Harvard Law School. Miller also earned a master’s degree in law at the University of Wisconsin.
After graduating from law school Professor Miller taught legal research and writing at the University of Miami School of Law and served as a judicial law clerk to federal judge William Hoeveler.
Miller joined the faculty of the University at Buffalo Law School in 1995, where she became a tenured professor of law, specializing in immigration law, criminal procedure, and prisoner law. In 2014, she was named the University at Buffalo’s inaugural vice provost for equity and inclusion. In 2018 then newly appointed SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson recruited Miller to join the central university administration system, first as the chancellor’s chief of staff, and later in the broader roles of senior vice chancellor and chief diversity officer.