Dr. Miller is the 2021 AIGA "Expanding Access" Medalist for her outsized influence within the profession to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers through her civil rights activism, industry exposé trade writing, research rigor, and archival vision. Miller is a national leader of Minority Rights, Gender, Race Diversity, Equality, Equity and Inclusion advocacy in Graphic Design.

She is founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., N.Y.C., a Social Impact Design firm; she is a designer, author, trade writer for PRINT Magazine, and theologian. Cheryl has a MS in Communications Design, Pratt Institute, a BFA in Graphic Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, completed Foundation Studies, Rhode Island School of Design and  holds a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a MDiv from the Union Theological Seminary.

A countless awards recipient, she is dedicated to Visual Arts advancement. The Cheryl D. Miller Collection at Stanford University is her legacy professional firm’s archive, including her memoir research and manuscripts. The collection features, D&I initiative, Corporate Communications developed for Fortune 500 corporations and Corporate Communications for National African American organizations, developed post Civil Rights Era 1974-1994.  She is an activist, decolonizing graphic design professor, lecturer and revisionist historian. She is Distinguished Senior Lecturer, University of Texas, Austin Design. She is a member of The Board of Trustees, Vermont College of Fine Arts and The President’s Global Advisory Board, Maryland Institute College of Art.