Our History

The foundations of Miller Engineering & Research Corporation (MERC) begin with the early childhood experiences of our founder, Ms. Terri T. Miller. Ms. Miller grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, where she received a lifetime of inspiration surrounded by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal engineers developing life changing technologies focused in science and space exploration. Huntsville is a recognized center for entrepreneurship where her father started and operated a plastics manufacturing company. She was additionally influenced by her mother’s early work at Morton-Thiokol, Inc. (now Orbital ATK), a company that evolved from supplying synthetic rubber and liquid polymer sealants during World War II, to one that would serve major rocket and missile propulsion systems, including production of the TX-18 Falcon missile, the world’s first solid-fueled missile system. With these influences, Ms. Miller pursued a bachelors degree in chemical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). While a student, she began her work in engineering services as a Principal Investigator at a small contractor supporting Redstone Arsenal. Her work entailed developing experimental waveguides for our nation’s guided missile technologies.

To follow her passion in space and engineering, Ms. Miller chose to pursue a masters degree in chemical engineering at UAH where she also worked as a research assistant with the NASA Consortium for Materials Development in Space (CMDS). Her work involved developing spaceflight hardware for suborbital rocket flights in order to study the effects of micro-gravity on the processing of various materials used in developing cutting tools for the machine tool industry. Through this experience, she was able to learn how to develop instrumentation for data collection, instrument design, and all the operational aspects of developing and flying space-qualified hardware.

Ms. Miller’s professional career has evolved from engineering roles to roles of management including responsibility for profit and loss within both the chemical and aerospace industries. She has served as a board member on the Chemical Industry Council of Maryland where she worked with government leaders, legislators, lobbyists and industry partners for the betterment of the local community. She was also a founding member of the South Baltimore Community Advisory Panel (CAP) where lines of communication between industry, local government services, and community leaders were established and promoted.

The companies where she has held leadership positions have included, Atotech USA Inc, FMC Corporation, and Northrop Grumman, where she served as the Site Director for the Space Technologies Services group. This position allowed her to manage and participate in the development of flight qualified avionics for NASA and the DOD. Most notably, she was part of the team that developed the flight avionics and software for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission that discovered frozen water on the south pole of the moon.

Ms. Miller brings a broad range of understanding to her commercial and Government customers as she assists them in reaching their objectives and goals.

Ms. Miller holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has over 30 years of experience in engineering services and manufacturing.