Clayton Hilmert

Professor and Chair

Faculty

Psychology

Dr. Clayton Hilmert confidently staring at the camera

Clayton Hilmert is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at North Dakota State University. He is a health and social psychologist who studies how psychological processes, physiological stress responses, and social context work together to shape health. Much of his research focuses on stress during pregnancy, including how stress, cardiovascular and neuroendocrine function, and experiences such as racism relate to fetal growth and birth outcomes. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, completed an NIMH postdoctoral fellowship in health psychology at UCLA, and joined NDSU in 2005.

Areas of Study & Research

  • Stress and health from a biopsychosocial perspective
  • Stress, physiology, and pregnancy outcomes
  • Cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to stress
  • Social support and stress
  • Racism, culture, and health disparities in birth outcomes
  • Virtual reality methods for studying stress

Courses Taught

  • PSYC 111 (Introduction to Psychology)
  • PSYC 280 (Introduction to Health Psychology)
  • PSYC 481/681 (Health Psychology)
  • PSYC 787 (Advanced Topics in Health Psychology)

Links

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, NIMH Health Psychology Traineeship, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003–2005
  • Ph.D., Experimental Social Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 2003
  • M.A., Experimental Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 1996
  • B.A., Psychology and Religion, Emory University, 1995 (magna cum laude in Psychology)