Alumnus Profile

Hillary N. Fouts, PhD

Dr. Hillary N. Fouts in the field Hillary Fouts is the new dean of graduate studies and research and a professor of psychological sciences at Western Oregon University (WOU). She earned her PhD in cultural anthropology at Washington State University in 2002. After graduate school, she moved to the eastern U.S. and spent four years as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the Section on Social and Emotional Development. In 2006, she joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) as an assistant professor in the Child and Family Studies Department. She went through the tenure-track at UTK and became a professor in 2018. After 14 years at UTK, she returned to the Pacific Northwest for her new position at WOU.

Fouts’s research is trans-disciplinary and draws methodologically and theoretically from cultural and biological anthropology, developmental psychology, family science, and public health. She has conducted funded research among children and families in rural and urban contexts of Central and East Africa since the late 1990s, as well as among underserved and underrepresented populations in the U.S. since 2005. Her main research interests are centered on parenting and child social–emotional development, children’s social learning and play, and infant/childcare, health, and feeding.

Recent publications

McElrone, M. Colby, S.E., Franzen-Castle, L., Olfert, M.D., Kattelmann, K.K., Fouts, H.N., Spence, M., Kavanagh, K., & White, A.A.
2020       A community-based cultural adaptation process: Developing a relevant cooking curriculum to address food security for Burundian and Congolese refugee families. Health Promotion Practice, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1524839920922496.

Bader, L., Ward, J., Fouts, H.N., & Jaekel, J.
2020       Infant care practices among resettled refugee mothers from East and Central Africa. Children, 7, 63, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children7060063.

McElrone, M. Colby, S.E., Fouts, H.N., Spence, M., Kavanagh, K., Franzen-Castle, L., Olfert, M.D., Kattelmann, K.K., & White, A.A.
2020       Feasibility and acceptability of implementing a culturally adapted cooking curriculum for Burundian and Congolese refugee families. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2020.1759575.

Bentley, R.A., Ruck, D.J., & Fouts, H.N.
2020       The delayed effect of added sugars on U.S. obesity. Economics and Human Biology, 36, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100818.

Salinas, D, Fouts, H. N., Neitzel, C. L., Bates-Fredi, D. R.
2019       Young children’s social networks in an informal urban settlement in Kenya. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(5), 639-658.

McElrone, M., Colby, S.E., Moret, L., Kavanagh, K., Spence, M., Fouts, H.N., Ellington, A, & Payne, M.
2019       Barriers and facilitators to food security among adult Burundian and Congolese refugee females resettled in the US. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 58(3), 247-264.

Bader, L. R., Fouts, H. N., & Jaekel, J.
2019       Mothers’ feelings about infants’ negative emotions and mother-infant interactions among the Gamo of Southern Ethiopia. Infant Behavior and Development, 54, 22-36.

Bader, L. R. & Fouts, H. N.
2019       Parents’ perceptions about infant emotions: A narrative cross-disciplinary systematic literature review. Developmental Review, 51, 1-30.

Neitzel, C. L., Drennan, K. & Fouts, H. N.
2019       Immigrant and nonimmigrant children’s social interactions and peer responses in mainstream preschool classrooms. The Journal of Educational Research, 122(1), 46-60.

Bader, L. R. & Fouts, H. N.
2018       Cultural models of infant emotions and needs among the Gamo people of Southern Ethiopia. Infant Mental Health Journal, 39(5), 497-510.

Hallam, R. A., Bargreen, K., Fouts, H. N., Lessard, L. & Skrobot, C.
2018       The use of infant confinement equipment in community-based child care centers: An analysis of centers participating in a statewide quality rating and improvement system. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22(5), 694-701.

Fouts, H. N., McAteer, C. I., Neitzel, C. L., & Bates-Fredi, D. R.
2017       Residential crowding and young children’s social and emotional behaviors in a Burundian refugee community. Children, Youth and Environments, 27(3), 34-55.

Fouts, H.N., Neitzel, C.L., & Bader, L.R.
2016       Work-themed play among young children in foraging and farming communities in Central Africa. Behaviour, 153, 663-691, DOI:10.1163/1568539X-00003362.