She has been with the Developmental Services Department, including the Cochlear Implant team, since 2000. Ayala received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed a pre-doctoral child psychology internship at Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a child psychology post-doctoral fellowship at Bradley Hospital through Brown University School of Medicine. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of California.