Dana Miller-Cotto, Ph.D.
Picture of Dana Miller-Cotto (August, 2020)
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I am an interdisciplinary scientist interested in understanding the role of cognitive, developmental, and contextual factors that predict educational disparities for historically underserved students (e.g., low-income, Black or Latino(a), and students with learning disabilities). My research focuses on how and why executive functions, or the ability to regulate and control actions and cognitions, are related to mathematics skills with the goal of designing learning materials for students along all ability levels. I’m also interested in the extent to which children’s early childhood experiences at home and in school promote or inhibit improvement in math and executive functions and how these experiences differ based on race/ethnicity and family income.
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I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Delaware in the College of Education and Human Development collaborating with Dr. Nancy Jordan on a project aiming to understand individual differences in how first-graders understand and learn fractions.
Beginning in Fall 2022, I will be joining the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University as a tenure track Assistant Professor. I will be accepting a PhD Student in the 2023 - 2024 academic year.
I earned my Bachelors in Psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) and gained my first research experiences through the NSF-funded Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) in STEM research apprenticeship program. I received my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 2017 before becoming a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), focusing on developing a package of interventions to reduce performance disparities in courses at the university with a high D/F/W rate. Before joining the University of Delaware, I worked with the EF+Math Program assembling an Equity Research Advisory Board to provide advisement to funded research teams on best practices when designing learning tools for underserved students. As a first-generation college graduate and former LSAMP scholar, I strongly advocate for undergraduate research experiences and welcome opportunities to work with undergraduates in my research.
I am currently accepting PhD students who plan to specialize in Psychological Sciences at Kent State University. Please contact me directly at dmillerc@kent.edu if you have additional questions about current and ongoing projects. If you are interested in applying to Kent State's PhD in Psychological Sciences to work with me, please note this in your application letter and explain how your interests align with mine. Relatedly, if you are an undergraduate student who hopes to gain research experiences in my lab, please contact me at the email above.
Beginning in Fall 2022, I will be joining the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University as a tenure track Assistant Professor. I will be accepting a PhD Student in the 2023 - 2024 academic year.
I earned my Bachelors in Psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) and gained my first research experiences through the NSF-funded Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) in STEM research apprenticeship program. I received my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 2017 before becoming a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), focusing on developing a package of interventions to reduce performance disparities in courses at the university with a high D/F/W rate. Before joining the University of Delaware, I worked with the EF+Math Program assembling an Equity Research Advisory Board to provide advisement to funded research teams on best practices when designing learning tools for underserved students. As a first-generation college graduate and former LSAMP scholar, I strongly advocate for undergraduate research experiences and welcome opportunities to work with undergraduates in my research.
I am currently accepting PhD students who plan to specialize in Psychological Sciences at Kent State University. Please contact me directly at dmillerc@kent.edu if you have additional questions about current and ongoing projects. If you are interested in applying to Kent State's PhD in Psychological Sciences to work with me, please note this in your application letter and explain how your interests align with mine. Relatedly, if you are an undergraduate student who hopes to gain research experiences in my lab, please contact me at the email above.
"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops".
- Stephen Jay Gould, Historian of Science
Upcoming Events
"Working Memory and Mathematics Skills: A Culturally Response Lens Interpretation through Family Socialization Practices"
Presentation to the Developmental Science Program
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
February, 2022
[Virtual]
"Executive Functions and Academic Outcomes"
Presentation at the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy
The Ohio State University
March, 2022
[Virtual]
"The Role of Executive Function Skills in Mathematics for Children Living in Poverty"
Developmental Psychology Colloquium
University of California - Merced
March, 2022
[Virtual]
"Examining the Varying Magnitude in Relations between Executive Functions and Mathematics Skills for Low and High SES children"
University of Maryland - College Park
April, 2022
[Virtual]
