President Fayneese Miller

Biography

Dr. Fayneese Miller joined Hamline University on July 1, 2015, becoming our institution's 20th president.  She is the first African American president in the history of Hamline and the university’s second female president.

Dr. Miller brings 30 years of academic and higher education leadership experience to her role at Hamline—as the first coordinator of education studies and the founding chairman of ethnic studies at Brown University, where she served on the faculty for 20 years and most recently, for nearly 10 years, as dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont.

At the University of Vermont, Dr. Miller was responsible for all aspects of both the graduate and undergraduate curriculum, professional development of faculty, budget management and new net revenue generation, fund development, and international collaborations for the college, among other responsibilities. She was a proven fundraiser and continuously exceeded fundraising expectations for her academic unit. She led the University of Vermont’s Strategic Budget Steering Committee and represented the deans on the President’s Leadership Council. She chaired the university’s Council of Deans, served on the Strategic Visioning Steering Committee, New Net Revenue Generation sub-committee, Diversity sub-committee, and chaired the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

While at Brown University, Dr. Miller was the chief architect and academic leader of the education studies concentration, for 10 years, and the ethnic studies concentration. She was the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and chaired the University’s Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee. In 1991, Dr. Miller became the first native born African American woman to be promoted to associate professor with tenure at Brown University.

Dr. Miller is a social psychologist who specializes in the psychosocial development of adolescents, with a focus on socio-political and identity development. She has authored or co-authored seven books or monographs, more than a dozen book chapters, and an extensive number of journal articles, research reports, and conference presentations. She has conducted studies for the Rhode Island Family Court on school-based truancy courts and the Rhode Island Supreme Court on race and gender bias in the courts. She has been an invited lecturer at institutions throughout the U.S. and in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She currently serves as special advisor to the chairman of the board at the University of Business and Technology in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Miller holds a PhD and an MS from Texas Christian University in experimental psychology, and a BA in psychology from Hampton University. Her post-doctoral work in applied social psychology was completed at Yale University.

Dr. Miller’s national committee service is extensive. She is a past chairman of the board of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), past president of the Council of Deans from Research Extensive Institutions (CADREI), a past co-chairman of the Outreach and Engagement Committee for the American Council of Education (ACE) Fellows and a past member of the fellows’ executive committee. She is a 2004-2005 ACE Fellow. She has also served on the advisory committee for the National Truancy Board. In addition, she has served on task forces or conducted research for such organizations as the Annie Casey Foundation (Task Force on Reproductive Health of Minority Youth); Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Mellon Foundation Planning Effort on Minority High Achievement; the SPSSI Taskforce on Culture for the American Psychological Association; the Advisory Board of the Committee on Title 1 Testing and Assessment for the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Science’s Task Force on Diversity in Higher Education, and the Kellogg Foundation (Taskforce on Minority High Achievement and the National Review Panel for Service-Learning Initiative Committee on Meritocracy and Schooling).

Dr. Miller is committed to public and community service. In Vermont, she served on the board of the United Way of Chittenden County. She was appointed by the past governor of Vermont to the Vermont State Board of Education on which she served as chairman for five years. In Rhode Island, she was appointed to numerous committees by the State Attorney General, the Governor, and the Mayors of Providence and Pawtucket. She was also a member of many community boards, including The Wheeler School, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island Youth Guidance Center, Big Sisters, Providence NAACP, Rhode Island Governor’s Task Force, and Langston Hughes Center for the Arts, and many others. As Hamline University president, she serves on the boards of the Minnesota Private College Council, the New American Colleges and Universities consortium, and the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities.