Add one more “senior adviser” to the growing list at the U.S. Department of Education: Ericka Miller, who was nominated as assistant secretary for the office of postsecondary education way back in 2013. Miller will be “acting” in that role, plus she’ll be (you guessed it) a “senior adviser,” according to an email sent to the Education Department by Ted Mitchell, the undersecretary at the agency.
Miller, who hails most recently from the Education Trust, will join a growing list of folks in key Education Department positions who are essentially doing the jobs they’ve been nominated for, even though they haven’t gotten the official seal of approval from Congress. (Capitol Hill isn’t exactly known for its speedy action on nominations, no matter which party is in charge, but some argue things have been worse than ever during the Obama administration’s tenure.)
Miller is a former assistant professor at Mills College, but she’s also got plenty of K-12 cred. (Ed Trust, where Miller served as a vice president, is deeply engaged in both K-12 and post-secondary education.) Plus, she led the K-12 education practice for the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. Oh, and she was also in the media business, working as an assistant managing editor for Washingtonian magazine, from 1987 to 1990.
“Ericka is an amazing leader who will bring a lifetime’s worth of education and management experience” to the department, Mitchell wrote.
It’s worth noting, however, that Miller “is not well-known in Washington higher-ed policy circles,” at least according to the folks at Inside Higher Education.