Dr. Aya Cheaito
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Aya Cheaito is an assistant professor at Concordia University in Edmonton. She received her PhD from the University of Vermont with a concentration in clinical and developmental psychology. She has clinical expertise in assessing and treating PTSD with veterans, refugees, and torture survivors.
Dr. Cheaito is fluent in English, French, and Arabic. Her research focuses on the underlying structural brain changes accompanying emotion dysregulation as well as idioms of distress among marginalized populations.
Dr. Cheaito has worked on neuroscience research projects examining discrimination, amygdala connectivity, and structural brain changes associated with dysregulation. She has also contributed to research on racial socialization across development and on systemic barriers affecting minoritized populations. More recently, she spearheaded a project exploring idioms of distress among torture survivors in Vermont (manuscript in preparation). Her interests bridge neuroscience and culture, with a trauma-focused lens that attends to both individual experiences and systemic contexts. In addition to her research, Dr. Cheaito has engaged in policy-related work advocating for refugee mental health in Washington, DC.
Research Interests:
- Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Emotion Dysregulation
- fMRI and amygdala connectivity
- Structural Brain Correlation of Emotion Regulation among Children
- Cultural Idioms of Distress and Trauma
- Systemic barriers in healthcare
Education:
- Ph.D., in Clinical and Developmental Psychology, University of Vermont (2025)
- M.A., Psychology, University of Vermont (2021)
- B.S. Neural Science, New York University (2016)