Meet Dace

Pronounced “Daa-see.” I am an Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC). Gerontology is the study of aging- something we all are doing. My journey started in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where I volunteered (at 13 yo) in a nursing home. After spending two high school summers learning about conducting research at Iowa State University and The University of Iowa, I knew I wanted to get my PhD. However, like many undergraduates, I didn’t know what I wanted to get my first degree in. Moving from Sociology, to Administration of Justice, to Biobehavioral Health (you know Penn State didn’t think I’d ever get my life in order), I finally found Human Development and Family Studies with a focus in Adulthood and Aging (2000). It was perfect and I loved every moment of those courses! After that, I figured if I was going to get my PhD and teach (because there’s more to life than research), I should actually know how to teach. So, I got a Master degree in Education with a focus on Adulthood Learning and Development, from Cleveland State University (2002). Afterwards, I earned a Master of Arts in Gerontology from the University of Southern California (2009). Finally, I earned my doctorate in Health Related Science with a focus in Gerontology, from Virginia Commonwealth University (2016). BUT, my learning wasn’t finished. I received an award as a postdoctoral fellow at the Duke University Medical Center, at the Center for Aging, for two years (2016-2018) and then got hooked up to learn, yet some more, in the Motivated Cognition and Aging Brain Lab at Duke University (2018-2019). Now in my fifth year at UNCC, I’m still learning. That’s the beauty of being an academic- there’s always more to learn. So, I never get bored.