Dr. Claytons family moved to Huntsville when she was a teen and when she was finally ready to go into private practice she could not think of a better place to live and work than right here in Huntsville.
She graduated from Auburn University before attending dental school at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry. Dr. Clayton spent an additional year of training at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, receiving a certificate of Advanced Education in General Dentistry. She has been known to call herself a continuing education junkie.
In 2009, Dr. Clayton received the prestigious Fellowship Award in the Academy of General Dentistry and then received Mastership in the Academy of General Dentistry in 2016, becoming only the third woman in Alabama to receive the award.
She regularly volunteers at the Community Free Dental Clinic, a not for profit urgent dental care clinic for poverty-level adult residents of Madison County. Her favorite phrase in talking about the Free Dental Clinic is We are simply broken people helping broken people. Giving back and public health is part of her history; After completing her schooling, Dr. Clayton spent three years working for a not-for-profit corporation in northern Florida, providing much needed dental services to the poor and underserved before returning to north Alabama.
