Payton M. Miller

Payton grew up in Northeast Tennessee and spent most of her childhood drawing, painting, and riding horses. From an early age, she had passions for both art and medicine, which were largely inspired by her grandmother, Marielle Magnant, who spent a lifetime collecting fine art, managing her husband’s busy Pediatrics practice, and raising eight children (six of whom became physicians).

Payton studied Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It was during this time that she became an avid Tennessee Vols football fan and expanded her creative career painting murals for the Vols athletic department. After graduation, she attended medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. in 2021, she matched into general surgery residency at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has completed two clinical years of general surgery residency and is currently completing a research fellowship with the IU RISE (Research in Innovative Surgical Education) group in Indianapolis, under the instruction of Dr. Dimitrios Stefanidis.

Payton is interested in using skills learned in the BVIS program to contribute to development of superior surgical simulation. She is also interested in app development for medical student and resident education, and illustration for representation of novel surgical techniques. At this time, her surgical interests are broad and include robotic surgery, vascular surgery, and plastic surgery. She is looking forward to making visualization a stable part of her surgical practice.