Rate My Professor Camelia Hostinar

Camelia E. Hostinar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, where she joined as Assistant Professor in 2016 and was promoted in 2022. She is a member of the Center for Mind and Brain and the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research, serves as Area Head for Developmental Psychology, and directs the Social Environment and Stress Lab. Hostinar completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development in 2013, with a dissertation titled “The Impact of Social Support and Early Life Stress on Stress Reactivity in Children and Adolescents.” She held a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research from 2013 to 2016. Her earlier degrees include an M.A. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2010 and a B.S. in Psychology, summa cum laude, from Towson University in 2008.

Hostinar's research examines how social environments influence child and adolescent health via stress reactivity, social support, early life stress, HPA axis and autonomic nervous system activity, inflammation, loneliness, childhood adversity, resilience, parenting, and air pollution effects. She leads NIH-funded projects, including R01 HD104185 on the development of social disconnection in youth. Notable awards include UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow (2026-2030), Dean’s Faculty Fellow (2022-2025), Boyd McCandless Award from APA Division 7 (2022), Academic Senate Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (2023), and Early Career Contributions Award from Society for Research in Child Development (2019). Key publications are "Stress in Childhood" (Cambridge University Press, in press), "Clearing the air: A systematic review of studies on air pollution and childhood brain outcomes" (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2024), "Generation COVID: Coming of age amid the pandemic" (Current Opinion in Psychology, 2024), and "The effect of acute stress on executive function in children: Moderation by parasympathetic nervous system activity" (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2026). She is an editorial board member for Development and Psychopathology and consulting editor for Child Development.