FAMU alumnus Virgil A. Miller, chief of staff for Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., will keynote his alma mater's honors convocation on March 22, 2012.Richmond's district includes the entire city of New Orleans. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Miller said the Congressional is focused on helping families that have been hurt by Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.
"How can we take this set-back and make it a set-up for success? How can we get money for disaster preparedness to our parishes? How can we increase credit availability for local small business," Miller said.
Miller was selected by Richmond in January 2011 after working with Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. As health policy advisor to Dingell, Miller played a key role in securing passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which granted the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. He also helped secure passage of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which improved safety regulations for both domestic and foreign food suppliers.
Prior to joining Dingell’s staff, Miller worked as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Louis Stokes Fellow in the office of U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY). Several congressional leaders and public health organizations have recognized his legislative and advocacy work on healthcare reform, Medicare/Medicaid policy, medical product safety, and health disparity issues.
When he is not working on Capitol Hill, Miller devotes his time to fundraising for breast cancer research and prevention through the Susan G. Komen for the Cure; speaking to youth through programs like World Vision and NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics (NAACP ACT-SO); and working with Young Alumni Giving (YAG), a networking organization he helped start to cultivate the next generation of leaders for FAMU.
Miller is a native of West Palm Beach, Fla. He earned his B.S. in biology and a master of public health from FAMU. His career in politics began while attending FAMU, as the student body president and an intern for then state Rep. Curtis Richardson (D-Fla.).