Dana Miller-Cotto

Dana Miller-Cotto is an Assistant Professor in the Berkeley School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, a position she has held since 2024. Previously, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University from 2022 to 2024, Postdoctoral Researcher in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware from 2020 to 2022, and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh from 2017 to 2019. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 2017, M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 2014, and B.A. in Psychology with honors (cum laude) from Lehman College of the City University of New York in 2011.

Dr. Miller-Cotto's research focuses on predictors of educational inequity, particularly mathematics learning among Black and Latine students living in poverty. She examines the role of executive functions—including working memory—in early math development, tests theories of working memory in this context, designs learning materials to support these cognitive skills, and investigates cultural and contextual influences on executive function assessments. Drawing from cognitive science, sociology, and educational psychology, her work appears in leading journals such as Journal of Educational Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology Review, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and Developmental Review. Key publications include "Examining ethnic/racial measurement invariance in fourth grade executive function" (Journal of Educational Psychology, accepted), "Understanding working memory and mathematics development for ethnically/racially minoritized children through an Integrative Theory lens" (Behavioral Sciences, 2024), "Profiles of preschoolers’ numerical abilities across quantity representations" (Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2024), "A meta-analysis of the worked example effect on mathematics performance" (Educational Psychology Review, 2023), and "What's the best way to characterize the relationship between working memory and achievement?" (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2020). Her research has been funded by the Society for Research in Child Development’s Black Caucus and the Brady Education Foundation. Awards include the Rising Star from the Association for Psychological Science (2024), Invited Presenter at the Early Career Symposium of the Cognitive Development Society (2024), Early Career Fellowship and Publication Productivity Award from Kent State University (2023), and Founding Member of the Global Executive Function Initiative (2023). She serves on the editorial board of Contemporary Educational Psychology and the Principal Review Board for Journal of Educational Psychology, and directs the BLOCK Lab at UC Berkeley.

Professional Email: dmillerc@berkeley.edu