Miller completed her Ph.D. dissertation in 1982 in the Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan on archaeobotanical evidence for the economy and environment of third millennium BC Malyan in southern Iran.

[1] Miller specializes in the study of charred plant remains from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in western and central Asia.

In the early 1980s, Miller identified animal dung as a source for charred plant remains at sites in the Near East had a major impact on the interpretation of archaeobotanical assemblages.

[6][7][8] Miller is currently a consulting scholar with the Near East Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and adjunct associate professor with the department of anthropology.

[12] She contributed to the development Penn Museum's new Middle East galleries, which opened in 2018, as part of the curatorial team.