June 2025 | From the Desk of the AOSA Presidency
The Association of Out Surgeons & Allies was built on a simple but radical premise: that LGBTQ+ surgeons deserve to belong — fully and visibly — in the operating room, in academic medicine, and in the halls of leadership. Today, we take immense pride in honoring someone who embodies that mission in every dimension of their career.
We are thrilled to announce Tai Miller as the inaugural recipient of the AOSA Presidential Pride Scholarship.
This award, presented by the current and past Presidents of AOSA, was created to recognize an LGBTQ+ surgical trainee whose commitment to advancing queer health, representation, and equity in surgery goes above and beyond. Tai did not just meet that bar — Tai set a new one entirely.
About Tai Miller
Tai is a dual-degree candidate pursuing an MD and a Master in Public Policy at Harvard, with additional coursework in transgender law at Harvard Law School. As an incoming plastic surgery resident at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tai brings a rare combination of scientific rigor, legal fluency, and sustained advocacy to the field of gender-affirming surgery.
Tai’s research portfolio — 35 peer-reviewed publications and nearly as many conference presentations — examines how civil rights protections shape access to gender-affirming care, documents surgical outcomes and patient-reported experiences, and investigates structural barriers like price transparency and geographic disparities in provider access. This is not just scholarship. It is evidence-building in service of patients, surgeons, policymakers, and insurers navigating one of the most contested areas of medicine today.
Before medical school, Tai worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with a focus on human rights, and then at the New York City Mayor’s Office on health policy and social services for LGBTQ+ youth. These experiences grounded Tai’s understanding of how policy shapes health outcomes — and they continue to inform a clinical and research approach rooted in equity and access.
A Decade of Advocacy, A Supreme Court Victory
Perhaps the most striking chapter of Tai’s story is one that unfolded while simultaneously navigating medical school: a seven-year civil rights effort seeking recognition for an LGBTQ+ student organization at Yeshiva University. Tai served as a named plaintiff, guiding the case through years of legal and institutional challenges — and ultimately to a significant ruling at the United States Supreme Court.
That persistence — maintaining a national legal fight while earning a dual Ivy League degree and publishing 35 papers — speaks to something you simply cannot teach. It speaks to character.
Why This Scholarship Matters
Tai’s upcoming residency at UT Memphis will be outstanding surgical training. But it will not include exposure to gender-affirming surgery or the research infrastructure that Tai has spent years building. That gap is exactly what this scholarship was designed to bridge.
The AOSA Presidential Pride Scholarship will provide Tai the resources to attend conferences, engage with leaders in gender-affirming surgery, and continue pursuing LGBTQ+ research throughout residency — ensuring that the pipeline of evidence and advocacy does not pause when training begins.
A Note from the AOSA Presidency
“AOSA exists because visibility matters, because representation saves lives, and because every LGBTQ+ surgeon and trainee deserves a community that sees them fully. Tai Miller is exactly the kind of emerging leader this scholarship was created to support — and we could not be more proud to present this inaugural award. The future of LGBTQ+ surgical care is in extraordinary hands.”
— The Current & Past Presidents of AOSA
Congratulations, Tai. We are honored to call you one of our own. 🌈🩺
The Presidential Pride Scholarship is awarded annually by the Association of Out Surgeons & Allies. To learn more about AOSA membership, scholarships, and advocacy, visit outsurgeons.org.