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Dana Kotter-Gruehn

DK

she/her/hers

Teaching Professor & Director of Advising

Department of Psychology

111 Lampe Drive, room 338

919-515-2254 Website

Bio

Dr. Dana Kotter-Gruehn is a teaching professor and serves as the director of undergraduate advising in the Psychology department at NC State University. She obtained her B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from Dresden University of Technology (Germany) and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the Free University, Berlin (Germany). Trained at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, she is a lifespan developmental psychologist with a research focus on psychosocial development in adulthood. Dr. Kotter-Gruehn is committed to fostering students’ academic, cognitive, and personal growth through advising, mentorship, and teaching. She is involved in course, curriculum, and program development centered around students’ critical career skills. She co-developed and co-teaches the Psychology department’s teaching practicum for Ph.D. students and conceptualized and oversees the department’s Undergraduate Learning Assistant program.

Website

Academic Advising

Education

Ph.D. Psychology Freie Universitaet Berlin 2008

Area(s) of Expertise

• Curriculum, program, and course development within Psychology, centered around critical career skills
• High-impact practices that improve student preparedness for graduate school
• Psychosocial development in adulthood and old age
• Social cognition: Self-perceptions of aging, age stereotypes, ageism
• Well-being and self-regulation in the context of successful aging

Publications

View all publications
  • Barbara Solomon Advising Award, NCSU, 2025
  • Outstanding Teaching Award, NCSU, 2023
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Professional Faculty Award, 2023
  • New Advisor Award, NCSU, 2018