Amber D. Miller
Amber D. Miller is President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She oversees the $13 billion charitable foundation, which invests in creative thinkers and problem solvers in more than 1,000 grantee organizations working to ensure meaningful opportunities to thrive for people, communities, and the planet. She leads the foundation in collaborating with partners to address our toughest problems – from the existential threat of climate change, to the future of our democratic, economic, and educational systems.
Before joining the foundation, Amber served as dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the largest school at USC, where she was responsible for managing a multidisciplinary institution with nearly 2,000 faculty and staff. In this role, she oversaw over 100 departments, programs, institutes, and centers ranging from art history to economics to environmental and physical sciences. During her tenure, Amber launched a number of signature initiatives including Public Exchange, a new way to bring academic expertise into partnership with civic and business leaders to tackle complex societal challenges such as climate and health; and the Center for the Political Future, which aims to create a healthier, more robust, and more bipartisan dialogue. She also created innovative training and mentoring programs to support and increase the leadership pipeline for women and people of color at all levels.
Previously, she served as the inaugural dean of science at Columbia University, where she enhanced connections across science, engineering, medicine, and other specialties. Amber’s academic research has focused primarily on experimental cosmology.
Amber’s honors and awards include a National Science Foundation Career Award, an Alfred. P. Sloan Fellowship, a Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award, and a Hubble Fellowship. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a board member of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy.
A California native, Amber received her B.A. in astronomy and physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.
