Learn More About:
Dr. Gary L. Miller
Provost and Vice President
for Academic Affairs and Research
Wichita State University
Dr. Miller became Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Research at Wichita State University in 2006. Under his leadership, the university has completed campus-wide initiatives in globalization, student success and retention, honors education, and on-line learning. He established the Tilford Group for diversity and multiculturalism. The University received full reaffirmation of accreditation by the North Central Association Higher Learning Commission in Dr. Miller’s first year as Provost. Dr. Miller has encouraged a more collaborative shared governance climate by formally integrating the Faculty Senate into Provost Office planning activities. Under his leadership the university has increased collaboration with the local school district (one of the largest urban school districts in the nation), increased emphasis on the development of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers, initiated a set of innovative programs to encourage minorities and women to study engineering, developed working relationships with the local medical community, increased research productivity and research partnerships, developed new nursing doctorate, masters in networking and bioengineering programs.
He has undertaken expansions of programs in Health Professions, Education, Engineering and Business. Dr. Miller has directed an expansion and refocusing of the university research mission that has resulted in a number of significant research partnerships. These include:
- a $20M partnership between the WSU National Institute for Aviation Research and Bombardier/Learjet, for testing related to development of a new business jet;
- the new Center for Innovation in Biomaterials and Orthopaedics (CIBOR), a $20M Kansas Bioscience Authority partnership between Via Christi Health Systems and Wichita State;
- the Regional Institute on Aging, established to coordinate research on the topic and grow into a prevention focused, well recognized scientific innovator in the field, serving citizens in south central Kansas and beyond;
- and, the Center for Storage Networking Research, created to perform state-of-the-art theoretical and experimental research in excellent lab facilities supported by LSI and Cisco Systems.
Dr. Miller has also led a pioneering collaboration between Wichita State and the Wichita Area Technical College to establish a research-based training model for the new National Aviation Training Center being built in Wichita.
In response to severe budget cuts related to the global economic recession, Dr. Miller established a campus process to Reduce, Reshape and Rebuild. The multi-year process involves meeting the immediate demands of budget reductions, re-imagining the university mission in light of the new economic realities, and building for the future. The process builds on the opportunity of Wichita State’s close relationship with the Wichita community. He has reached out to emphasize Wichita State’s academic and research focus through the creation and hosting of a monthly television show, Wichita State & the World, as well as newsletters and op-ed articles.
Dr. Miller was born in 1954 in Harrisonburg, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1976 with a BA in Biology and a minor in Anthropology and in 1979 with the MA degree in Biology. Dr. Miller received his Ph.D. degree in biological sciences from Mississippi State University in 1982. His dissertation work involved a study of the ecological mechanisms of freshwater stream fish communities.
Dr. Miller served as Assistant Professor Entomology at Mississippi State where he worked in collaboration with the USDA and scientists from fourteen states to develop a nationwide, computerized pest detection system. In 1985, Dr. Miller joined the faculty of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. In 1989 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor Biology at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he worked for fourteen years, seven as chair of the department, achieving the rank of Professor of Biology. Dr. Miller has published in the areas of population, community and behavioral ecology, with much of his work focused on reproductive biology and mating systems of wolf spiders. His research has been published in Ecology, Animal Behaviour, and Oecologia among others. He is the former Associate Editor of the Journal of Arachnology.
In 2002, Dr. Miller became Dean of the College of the Pacific (arts and sciences) and Professor of Biology at the University of the Pacific. At Pacific he was instrumental in expanding programs in the sciences, theatre and the social sciences. He organized a full revision of the general education program, increased enrollments and expanded the College Faculty. He joined the Deans of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law and the Benerd School of Education to create the Pacific P12 partnership to improve student success in public schools in Sacramento. He founded the Pacific Natural Resources Institute.
Dr. Miller is active in national organizations. Most recently, he participated as a member of the task force that developed the student learning outcomes component of the Voluntary System of Accountability, a joint project of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU: formerly NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). He is a member of the North Central Regional College and University Advisory Council of the Educational Testing Service (ETS).