Susan Miller is a seasoned arts and academic professional who has held key posts in numerous presenting institutions, universities, and non-profit cultural centers. She brings deep experience in organizational development, planning, fiscal management and community engagement, and a commitment to public education in her new appointment with us at the Arts + Design Initiative.

Susan is already a well-respected member of our University; since 2008, she has developed four interdisciplinary campus research groups: the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Berkeley Center for Study of Religion, the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research, and The Program in Critical Theory. These start-ups exemplify cross-disciplinary research that embraces the arts, social sciences, engineering, architecture, history, and numerous campus departments. In other words, Susan knows how to run the kind of of cutting-edge arts and design programs that make Berkeley such a fantastic place.

Prior to her work at UC Berkeley, she was the executive director of San Francisco’s New Langton Arts (1993-2005) bringing incredible leadership to this multi-disciplinary arts organization. She has also held posts at Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Capp Street Project, and Stanford University’s Arts Initiative. As an independent curator and producer, she has organized original exhibitions for national and international travel and published comprehensive monographs on contemporary artists. Her specialization is video, media arts, technology, and San Francisco/Bay Area creative practice since the 1970s. Miller’s curatorial projects have been presented at The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Oakland Museum of California, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and The Corcoran Gallery of Art.

In light of our campus mission to feature, fortify, and mobilize existing excellence in the arts and design at UC Berkeley, we can’t think of a person better suited to help us lead. With her as a thought partner and implementer, we will advance the Chancellor’s priorities of interdisciplinary research, undergraduate education, public service and global engagement, all while fostering new forms of dynamic collaboration, innovation, and public access across all arts and design fields, on our campus and in public life. You will see so many of those opportunities already on offer in this March newsletter and posted throughout our website. With Susan on our team, we look forward to more.