Staff & Advisory Board
Dr. Cathy Miller
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH
Dr. Cathy Miller is a scholar, clinician, educator, and international advocate with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare and over two decades dedicated to combating human trafficking working within and across the public sector, health care, non-governmental organizations, and law enforcement agencies.
Her clinical background encompasses advanced practice as a critical care registered nurse and flight nurse across emergency, intensive care, forensics, and trauma settings, as well as service within Texas Disaster and Emergency Management organizations. She has held leadership roles across multiple departments and agencies, bringing frontline expertise to her work with HT victims and survivors.
Dr. Miller is internationally recognized for her contributions to addressing HT and complex trauma. She delivers training and presentations across the United States and internationally on topics including human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, post-mortem detection, and trauma-informed care — engaging healthcare organizations, law enforcement, and public sector audiences. Her scholarly work includes publications in medical, nursing, and public health textbooks and encyclopedias, as well as policy initiatives authored for the World Health Organization and the American Public Health Association.
In collaboration with multidisciplinary research teams, Dr. Miller led pioneering studies to identify essential components of healthcare education programs for the recognition, intervention, and referral of trafficking victims — research subsequently expanded to encompass all forms and ages of trafficking.
In 2018, through a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Dr. Miller founded EChO, a mentoring program for human trafficking survivors developed in collaboration with the Texas Coastal Bend Border Region Human Trafficking Task Force. The program continues to enroll and graduate mentees as of 2026.
Dr. Miller currently serves as a consultant and trainer for the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is Co-Founder of the Texas Coastal Bend Border Region Human Trafficking Task Force in collaboration with The United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations, and a founding Steering Committee member of the Global Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, launched at the United Nations in 2018.
Her current program of research is expanding from the health of victims and survivors to a scientific examination of the full spectrum of experiences and acute and chronic outcomes associated with HT victim criminal conviction and incarceration.
Dr. Miller is also the founder and president of Miller Health Care Consulting, through which she serves as a subject matter expert for legal firms and teams, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, the Texas Rusk County District Attorney’s Office, and as an expert witness for various law firms across the US.