Cara A. Miller, Ph.D., SEP is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C, and a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in the District of Columbia and Maryland. Along with teaching, supervision, and research mentoring of clinical psychology students, Dr. Miller maintains a research agenda in human-animal interaction; trauma and post-traumatic growth; grief and bereavement; deafness, disability and identity; and gender and sexuality. She has particular interest in assistance dog partnerships as well as the interpersonal neurobiology of human-canine interaction. Her research includes exploration of deaf and hard of hearing individuals’ experiences of hearing dog partnerships, attitudes regarding service dog partnerships as a function of disability identity, and disabled partners’ bereavement following the loss of a service dog.
Previously, Dr. Miller provided cross-cultural training and dialogue facilitation through the Gallaudet University Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, where she oversaw education and programming for the LGBTQA Resource Center and participated in multicultural organization and curriculum transformation efforts. She is regularly involved in faculty leadership initiatives to support culturally-responsive and trauma-informed pedagogy. Additionally, she coordinated Gallaudet University’s campus-wide disability accommodations program on assistance animals from 2017-2020, advising on policy development and implementation around regulatory access issues in higher education and public settings.
Dr. Miller also served as the National Mental Health Consultant to Canine Companions,® supporting implementation of a pilot program placing skilled service dogs with veterans with post-traumatic stress. Dr. Miller has presented nationally and internationally to industry professionals, legislators, assistance dog trainers and partners, executives, educators, and the lay public at symposiums and conferences of the American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association (ADARA); Assistance Dogs International (ADI); American Psychological Association (APA); Courthouse Dogs Foundation; Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA); International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP); and International Society of Anthrozoology (ISAZ), among others. Additionally, she has appeared on National Geographic Wild’s “Canine, MD,” and NexGuard’s “Hero Tails” series with her beloved hearing dogs Maya, now deceased, and Turf.
She is the co-author of the forthcoming text, “Deaf People in Society: Psychological, Sociological, and Educational Perspectives” (Third Edition, Routledge; 2023).