About Your Guide
Inspired by her first ghost experience in York, England at age 8, Rissa Miller became a history guide when she was 15. Her first gig was with the Colonial Complex, still operated by the York County History Center. She went on to study at New York University's Tisch School and was an award-winning editor at The Baltimore Sun early in her journalism career.
Rissa is a folklorist, author, historian, and storyteller specializing in ghost lore, regional hauntings, esoteric traditions, and uncanny folklore throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland. She blends meticulous historical research with lived experience, offering audiences grounded, accessible insight into the supernatural stories that continue to shape local identity.
Her work explores why certain places feel haunted, how legends evolve, and what ghost stories reveal about fear, memory, grief, and community. Rissa regularly presents her research at libraries, historical societies, museums, festivals, and paranormal conferences, and she leads tours through some of Pennsylvania’s most storied streets.
A lifelong writer and editor, her essays, talks, and creative work spotlight everything from death culture and Victorian mourning practices to witchcraft history, cryptid lore, and the persistence of superstition. She is the author of Room With a Boo and a poetry collection Goodnight, Poet, with additional work appearing in anthologies and national publications. Her smoke scrying practice was featured in DK Publishing’s A History of Astrology, Divination and Prophecy (2025).
Rissa is known for her warm, intelligent storytelling style ~ scholarly without being dry, eerie without being sensational ~ making her a compelling voice for both skeptical audiences and seasoned paranormal enthusiasts. Her signature programs, such as Hell House, Haunted Downtown York, History of Pennsylvania Witches, and The 13 Un-Merry Monsters of Christmas, weave together archival research, folklore, psychology, and lived testimony.
When she isn’t leading tours or presenting, Rissa is traveling Pennsylvania’s backroads, visiting cemeteries, wandering historic towns, and collecting stories from the communities she meets along the way.
Explore her event catalog or sign up for an upcoming program.
Looking for her divination, herbalism, or cooking classes? Visit her sister site: Tea & Smoke.
