Jan. 24, 2024

Alumna’s teaching, research achievements earn national honors

Northwest Missouri State University alumna Dr. 卡罗尔·米勒在她漫长的职业生涯中，不仅是一名公正的法律教师，而且是一名多产的研究人员, having more than 100 publications under her name.

Last summer, 她获得了由商业法律研究学院(ALSB)颁发的杰出职业成就奖，为她的成就增添了一项荣誉。.

“I was very pleased,” Carol said. “It was like the cherry on top of my career.”

Now in her 40th year of teaching, 她是位于斯普林菲尔德的密苏里州立大学的杰出商业法教授, where her teaching and research interests focus on environmental law, constitutional law, tobacco regulation and eminent domain. 她是密苏里州立大学商学院唯一一位拥有杰出教授头衔的教员，这是一个高于正教授的头衔，由全校委员会选出. 

在她的职业生涯中，她获得了30项与研究相关的奖项或奖学金, 包括2007年ALSB的国家卓越研究奖和密苏里州律师协会的最佳文章奖. Among other awards and honors, 2010年，她作为法律学者获得了密苏里州律师媒体妇女正义奖. At Missouri State, 她是2019年总督公共事务奖的获得者，也是院长研究教授的三次获得者，也是大学基金会研究奖的三次获得者.

She has been a member of ALSB – an association of nearly 1,自1982年以来，已有2000名专门从事法律领域的大学教师和学者, and she served as its president during 2012-13.

“我喜欢将复杂的概念组织起来，让学生能够理解，并将其应用到现实世界中,” Carol said. “我喜欢尝试寻找传统法律理论的新应用.”

In the classroom, 她的研究和她教学生的法律领域的方式现在可能比以往任何时候都更重要——尤其是在涉及环境法的时候, as the world grapples with climate change and debates regulations. 学生们称赞她是一位富有挑战性的老师，她对主题充满热情，并允许他们尊重地提出不同的观点.

“我有很多任务，因为事情在不断变化，”她说. “他们需要知道如何查找和应用——而不是死记硬背——这些东西在他们离开学校的时候已经改变了.”

Carol traces her interest in research to her days at Horace Mann Laboratory School, where she attended through the eighth grade, and one of her teachers, Pauline Arthur, emphasized writing skills. In addition to completing a 10-page term paper, Arthur instructed students to keep spelling and vocabulary notebooks. 学生们定期出版校报，插在《威尼斯人在线》上, read at least 1,阅读了000页与历史有关的书籍，并根据他们读过的书写剧本.

“我把我的写作能力归功于她胜过一切，”卡罗尔说. “Even when I was in law school, although I wasn’t at the top of my law school class, I did set the curve when there was a paper to write.”

It also didn’t hurt that Carol was the daughter of Dr. Leon Miller, 他在西北航空公司有35年的职业生涯，其中包括担任董事会主席 education department, Horace Mann director, dean of instruction and the first dean of the Graduate School此外，他还监督了近30年的州演讲比赛. Carol’s mother, Mary Belle Miller, also was an educator.

As a Northwest freshman and sophomore, Carol entered speech contests and was an intercollegiate debater, which served her well during law school. 大一的时候，她就赢得了全校的导论演讲比赛.

但在威尼斯人在线待了两年后，卡罗尔转到了密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校. 1975年，作为一名大四学生，她完成了一次立法部门的实习，并在副州长办公室完成了另一次实习，同时获得了历史学学士学位. She then enrolled in the University of Missouri law school, where she completed a juris doctorate in 1978, 1979年担任密苏里州最高法院首席大法官June P. Morgan, a 1940 Northwest alumnus.

Later in 1979, tragedy struck the Miller family when Carol’s sister, Gayle Miller Bilden, a 1976 Northwest alumna, was killed in a car crash. 卡罗尔回到玛丽维尔和父母在一起，她在威尼斯人在线之前的课程中获得了几乎足够的学分，可以获得另一个学士学位，并在威尼斯人在线获得了社会科学学位. Then that fall, Dr. William Fleming, a popular American history instructor, 他突然去世了，卡罗尔被要求代替他站在教室前面, 她在1979-1980学年开始了她在威尼斯人在线的教学生涯.  

Carol eventually opted to focus on teaching law, 从那以后，她就一直在做这件事——除了离开教室一年，她加入了斯特朗律师事务所, selected to a team of 49 lawyers from throughout the state, 代表密苏里州总检察长办公室处理起诉烟草公司的诉讼, a monumental case resulting in a $6.7 billion recovery to the state.

在1984年搬到密苏里州之前，她在印第安纳州立大学教了三年书. 她还于1991年在伦敦的密苏里伦敦项目任教，并于2016年夏天在德国的麦哲伦项目任教.

今天，卡罗尔仍然与威尼斯人在线保持着密切的联系，并保留着她父母在玛丽维尔的家. 为了继续支持大学，Carol和她的母亲成立了Dr. Leon F. Miller Graduate Grant Award in 2012. Additionally, 为了纪念她的妹妹，卡罗尔和她的父母为化学专业的学生设立了盖尔·米勒·比尔登纪念奖学金.

米勒说:“在那里纪念我父亲对我来说特别重要。. “That scholarship is extremely important to me, and I hope it helps in a little way, 未来的毕业生也会对他在哈佛的所作所为有所了解.”