Board of Directors

Terri Miller: S.E.S.A.M.E. Board President

Ms. Miller is the mother of four bright and beautiful children. As an advocate for the Safe Education of Children, she has been a member of SESAME (Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation) since 1996 and is currently volunteer Board President. Her responsibilities include providing support, resource materials and research to survivors, their families, professionals, and media.

In 1983, the impetus that brought Ms. Miller into the advocacy realm was the discovery that students were being exploited and sexually assaulted at the high school in the small rural community where she and her young family resided, 60 miles west of Las Vegas, NV. This intolerable state of affairs impelled Ms. Miller to eventually conduct her own investigation uncovering abuses of more than 60 students in one teacher's 20-year tenure. Joseph S. Peterson was consequently charged in 1994 with three counts of Sexual Assault, a class A felony. He pled, in accordance with the United States Supreme Court case of North Carolina v Alford, to one count of Sexual Assault, in 1996, and was sentenced to 5 years to life, which he continues to serve.

Ms. Miller successfully lobbied the Nevada legislature to pass Senate Bill 122, to prohibit sexual conduct between certain employees of school and 16-17 year old pupils. SB 122 was signed into law July 1997 and NRS 201.540 became effective Oct. 1, 1997. During her lobbying efforts, in 2001, to amend the law ("her baby" as she calls it), she became familiar with the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence, the organization responsible for drafting the amendment. Together they successfully lobbied to amend the law to recognize offending school volunteers and to protect 14-15 year old students, as well. She eagerly became a member of the coalition and in less than a year, took a staff position as Training Services Coordinator. It was in this capacity that she convinced her Director to address Educator Sexual Abuse at the coalition's second annual conference, 2003; the nation's first of its kind, funded by a grant from the Center for Disease Control. She assembled her dream team of national experts, whose works she had tenaciously studied, to pursue her goals to prevent abuse and provide support to victims of abuse in schools nationwide. Ms. Miller, through countless hours of internet research, has compiled one of the largest libraries of Educator Sexual Misconduct resources available through S.E.S.A.M.E., Inc. at the click of her mouse.

Ms. Miller has worked to educate through numerous appearances on national talk shows, conference presentations and has contributed to countless articles throughout the United States and Canada. Ms. Miller has presented at the Voices in Action conference, July 1997, NOVA conference 1999, and NASDTEC Professional Practices Institute (PPI)-Roundtable Discussion, 2000, PPI-Educator Sexual Misconduct-Advocating for the Victim, 2004, Educator Sexual Misconduct-Taking Action, Hofstra Univ. 2004, NASDTEC Annual Conference-Poster Presentation, 2005, and Nevada Public Health Foundation Conference-Consent is Not a Defense, 2005. Some of her appearances include The Montel Williams Show, John Walsh Show, Geraldo Rivera Show, and Good Morning America. Her story was featured in Ladies Home Journal, The Teacher From Hell - May 1997, Good Housekeeping, School Sex Scandal: The Predator in the Classroom - May 2003 and Lifetime's "Final Justice", April 11, 2003. Ms. Miller authored her first article which appeared in the Sexual Assault Coalition Resource Sharing Project's RESHAPE Newsletter, Issue 15, Summer 2005-General Information and the Role of Coalitions in Fighting Educator Sexual Misconduct.

The mantra Ms. Miller hopes will inspire change is: As Parents we are mandated, by law, to send our children to school - by law, our schools had better be mandated to keep them safe. When asked about her credentials, she responds: "my title is MOM; Mamma On a Mission; I'll never give up pursuing better practices for Safety and Success in educating children."