Steven Z. Miller Pediatric Society

We provide Columbia medical students with opportunities to engage with the world of pediatrics, both as it serves to complement the preclinical curriculum and to inform the professional interests of students.

Our Mission

The goal of the Steven Z. Miller Pediatric Society is to honor Steven Z. Miller's commitment to humanism in medicine and his love of pediatrics by providing students with opportunities in and resources about pediatric medicine.

About Steven Z. Miller, MD

Dr. Steven Z. Miller, a 1984 graduate of the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, was the Arnold P. Gold Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and Pediatrics Clerkship Director at NewYork-Presbyterian’s Children’s Hospital when he died in a commuter airplane crash in northeast Missouri on Oct. 19, 2004.

Dr. Miller was an inspiration to the Columbia students he taught for 11 years. He considered education a priority, whether it was teaching humanism to all medical students, holding “Miller Time” on Friday afternoons where students in pediatrics discussed a teaching case, or setting an example for pediatrics house staff. As Director of Pediatric Medical Student Education, he was one of the most popular members of the medical school's faculty. He was frequently honored for his teaching skills, including the Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, and, on several occasions, Teacher of the Year as voted by students.

Dr. Miller, a native of New York City, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia College in 1980. After graduating from medical school, he was intern, resident, and chief resident in pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and joined the faculty there in 1988. He was active in student education at Einstein and received many awards for teaching there. He returned to Columbia in 1993 and the next year received the Class of 1995’s Outstanding Teacher Award.

Dr. Miller led national and regional workshops on humanism in medicine. He developed a website to publish and share medical student, patient, and physician writings on the medical experience, was invited to develop a core curriculum in humanism by a working group representing several schools, and was nationally recognized for his expertise in humanism in medicine. He developed the first Clinical Transition Ceremony to help second-year students as they moved into their Major Clinical Year. The first ceremony was held at Columbia in 1998, and he received a standing ovation at the 2004 ceremony.

Contact Us

For more information, email szm-pediatrics@columbia.edu.