Since November 2014, Jim Miller has been the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the New York Film Academy College of Visual & Performing Arts (NYFA), where he manages international recruitment strategies and administers numerous programs for the College. Additionally, he is the Executive Director of the New York Film Academy Foundation, which supports many art and cultural activities as well as community-based programs and organizations that work with under-served communities. Under his leadership, the College and the NYFA Foundation lend assistance to visual artists and journalists who are at risk due to war and instability in their home country, and/or are persecuted due to activist activities and their involvement in human rights activities. 

From 1998 to 2014, Miller worked at the Institute of International Education (IIE); from 2007 he served as Executive Director of the Scholar Rescue Fund© (IIE-SRF), a program of the Institute of International Education (IIE). Since its founding in 2002, IIE-SRF has saved the lives and careers of over 700 threatened and persecuted scholars from 54 countries by offering academic fellowships and other vital support to scholars and their families. IIE-SRF has provided temporary “safe-haven” for the program’s scholars at over 450 host partner institutions more than 50 countries. 

Miller also directed the IIE-SRF Iraq Scholar Rescue Project, a public/private partnership of more than $22M. Activated in 2006 in response to the academic emergency that beset Iraq post-2003, the Iraq Scholar Rescue has assisted over 375 of Iraq’s senior scholars and scientists and provided professional development benefits for scholars and administrators, including an extensive series of higher education capacity building trainings and conferences aimed at assisting in reconstructing Iraq’s higher education and scientific sectors.  

For a decade, Miller was the senior executive of Studio Art College International (SACI), an Art and Archeology College in Florence, Italy. He serves on numerous boards and is the founder of the Medhen Orphan Relief Effort (MORE), an organization which has assisted more than 2,000 orphaned children in Ethiopia. He also served as a founding member of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA). Miller has been a keynote presenter at numerous international academic conferences. Additionally, he has published many articles — including in peer-reviewed journals — and has interviewed extensively with the media.