Erin Ayala, PhD, LP, CMPC (she/her) is a licensed psychologist who specializes in health and sport psychology. She is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and is listed as a licensed mental health provider on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Mental Health Registry.  Erin approaches her work with clients in a holistic manner, recognizing that daily life, health, and athletic performance are often intertwined.

Erin began her career in sport psychology as an academic and an educator, teaching sport psychology courses while studying for her PhD in Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany in Albany, New York, and publishing research in Health Psychology while teaching graduate and undergraduate courses at Saint Mary’s University and the University of Minnesota, Duluth, respectively.  She has worked with athletes in college counseling, career counseling, medical centers, inpatient psychiatry, and community mental health, and currently helms Premier’s Research, Development, and Assessment division, conducting research and data analysis, administering client assessments, and developing new assessment instruments for Premier and the field at-large, including Premier’s own Athlete Wellness and Performance Assessment.

In her time outside of Premier, Erin is an avid endurance sport athlete and advocate, having completed nine marathons, seven half-distance triathlons, and one full-distance triathlon. She is the co-founder of a women’s cycling team in Minneapolis and regularly races in events throughout the Midwest as a semi-professional cyclist. She has also forged inroads from athletics into outreach, volunteering for a “couch to 5k” program for domestic violence survivors in New York, and serving as a mentor for “Little Bellas,” a non-profit mountain biking organization for 7-13 year-old girls.