Pamela J. Miller, JD, MSW, LISW-S

Miller is a Licensed Independent Social Worker-Supervisor and attorney. She was previously the founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Justice Project which provided targeted economic assistance to impoverished children who had also experienced maltreatment. For many years she was a psychotherapist at Lighthouse Youth and Family Services where she specialized in treating attachment and traumatic disorders for young children in foster care, with a particular focus on sexual abuse and child torture survivors. She consults on complex cases, testifies as a social scientist, and trains child maltreatment professionals in evidence-based methods.

Miller is a Certified Trauma Practitioner with the National Institute on Trauma and Loss in Children. She was trained by Dr. Bruce Perry in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and trained with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk to become Certified in Body-Based Trauma Treatment. Miller studied with Dr. Judith Cohen to become Certified in TF-CBT. She has also studied at the Theraplay Institute, trained in PCIT/CARE, and in Child-Centered Play Therapy. In 2018, Miller joined the Center for Child Policy’s national expert panel on Mandated Reporting. In 2019, she joined the staff as Senior Policy Analyst.

Miller is committed to ending the oppression of maltreated children.

Miller serves on boards and committees at the local, state, and national level. She was a board member of the National Association of Social Workers Ohio from 2016-2020, where she was awarded for Outstanding Service to Social Work in 2019 and 2020, and received the President’s Award for Regional Director of the Year in 2017. She serves on the Amicus Committee of APSAC, has assisted with briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, and has served as lead counsel on amicus briefs before the Ohio Supreme Court. Miller has published on “Agency in Vulnerable Families” in the journal Social Work, and “Intrafamilial Child Torture: Training Mandated Reporters” in the APSAC Advisor. She has published numerous white papers on issues in child maltreatment, including intrafamilial child torture, sexual abuse disclosures in young children, and family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Miller studied at the Ohio State Moritz College of Law where she was a Moritz Merit Scholar, and completed her JD/MSW joint degrees at the University of Cincinnati. She was trained as a psychotherapist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Department of Psychiatry, and as a child welfare administrator at Hamilton County Job & Family Services. For her work as a law student in child welfare, Miller was awarded the national Bergstrom Fellowship by the University of Michigan College of Law. Miller began her career as an Attorney-GAL and social work administrator in Washington, D.C., later practiced family violence law in the San Francisco area, and now divides her time between Cincinnati, Ohio and Nashville, Tennessee.

Recent publications:

Miller, P.J., Rycus, J., Hughes, R. (2021). Intrafamilial child torture: Making the case for a distinct category of child maltreatment. American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Center for Child Policy. Available at centerforchildpolicy.org/ intrafamilialchildtorture

Miller, P.J., Rycus, J., Hughes, R. (2021). Intrafamilial child torture: Case study of a child survivor. American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Center for Child Policy. Available at centerforchildpolicy.org/intrafamilialchildtorture

Brief for the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) as Amicus Curiae, In Support of the Appellants, Smathers v. Glass, 2020-Ohio-3264 (2021). Before The Supreme Court of Ohio. Case of Intrafamilial Child Torture and child fatality.

Brief for the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) as Amicus Curiae, Memorandum in Support of Jurisdiction, Smathers v. Glass, 2020-Ohio-3264 (2020). Before The Supreme Court of Ohio. Case of Intrafamilial Child Torture and child fatality.

Miller, P.J. (2020). Intrafamilial child torture: Training mandated reporters. APSAC Advisor, (32)1, pp.3-6. Available at https://www.apsac.org/single-post/2020/03/31/New-APSAC-Advisor-321