Alayna Freeman, MD

Dr. Alayna Freeman is a Georgia native by way of the sea islands of South Carolina and a second-year Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow and Chief Fellow of the New Haven track at the Yale Child Study Center. She is an active duty Medical Corps officer in the United States Air Force, where she was recently promoted to Major. Dr. Freeman completed residency training at UT Health San Antonio in San Antonio, TX, medical school at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, where she served as chapter president of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). She completed her bachelor’s degree at Xavier University of Louisiana, while commissioning from Air Force ROTC at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. She was recently honored with a 40 Under 40 award from her alma mater for her contributions in service and to the field of medicine.

Dr. Freeman is also a 2025–2027 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program Committee Emerging Leaders Fellow and an American Psychiatric Association Ambassador. She previously served as the Education Director and now serves as the Co-Executive Director of Rising Youth, a nonprofit organization that integrates mental health education into local high schools for predominantly Black and Brown youth. She is currently conducting research in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh to establish a peer-led Black fatherhood mentorship program.

Throughout her educational pursuits, Dr. Freeman has collaborated with the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress on recommendations for caring for military children after parental death, led child psychiatry groups in Spain, and partnered with the Amazing Grace Children’s Foundation and Suicide Prevention Foundation in Accra, Ghana, to integrate mental health screening into a medical mission in Prampram. She was featured in VICE in 2018 as an HBCU All-Star Student discussing the impact of health disparities on BIPOC communities. She has participated in speaking engagements to include talks with the Girl Scouts of America Southwest Chapter about self-esteem and advocacy and panel discussions about bullying and building safe spaces for adolescents. She currently serves as a mentor for New Haven’s Phenomenal I Am, Incorporated, a nonprofit organization for teen girl empowerment, and in collaboration with the Elephant in the Room Boxing Academy board in New Haven, CT.

Her professional interests include global and community-based mental health education, supporting military youth, and trauma-informed care for underserved youth and families. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, photography, practicing as a licensed esthetician, and playing the piano.