Krisstal Clayton

Krisstal Clayton is a Clinical Professor at the University of North Texas (UNT), where she has taught since Fall 2018. Her work bridges psychology, legal systems, and pedagogical innovation through active learning methods. At UNT, she collaborates with law enforcement, clinicians, and advocates to explore psychology's role in the American legal system and serves as a 2019 Faculty Fellow with UNT CLEAR to promote teaching excellence.

Teaching Interests: Gamification and simulations for student engagement, community-partnership and team-based learning, Aronson's jigsaw classroom method, and documentaries as case-based learning tools. Her courses range from Introduction to Psychology to doctoral-level Applied Social Psychology in the Clinic.

Research Interests: Music-paired interventions for neurorehabilitation and memory improvement in physical therapy, music preference assessments for hospitalized individuals, attitude shifts toward the legal system via education, stigma and deviant behavior analysis, and longitudinal evaluation of teaching effectiveness. Her first article on music-paired rehab for stroke patients was accepted to Physiotherapy Theory & Practice.

Awards and Recognition:

• Western Kentucky University College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Teaching Award (2015)

Additional Roles: Textbook author and pedagogical specialist for SAGE Publications, consulting editor for the Journal of General Psychology, and presenter at the National Institute for the Teaching of Psychology and UNT University Forum on Teaching and Learning.