Margaret Clayton, PhD, APRN, is an investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute. She is also an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Utah, where she teaches a large undergraduate pathophysiology course and a doctoral seminar in data collection methods. Her clinical background is as a family nurse practitioner.

In her research, Clayton combines self report and physiologic data that relates to cancer survivorship. She focuses on breast and prostate cancer survivors, with a particular interest in their emotional and physical well-being. A main focus of her research is how verbal and nonverbal patient/provider communication processes influence emotional and physical health during survivorship.

Clayton earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Connecticut, her master's degree in nursing from Pace University in New York, and a PhD in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her predoctoral education was funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award and a National Cancer Institute fellowship in cancer control and epidemiology at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her postdoctoral research was funded by the American Nurses Foundation and an NIH National Research Service Award. Clayton joined the University of Utah faculty in 2005. Currently she is principal investigator on two intramural grants.