Rachel Cassalia

Rachel Cassalia is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Military and Veteran Resilience and Health Innovation Collaborative in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with distinction (CSCS,*D) and Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator (TSAC-F,*D), she has over 13 years of experience working with military, fire service, and ROTC populations since joining ASU in 2016.

Education:

• PhD in Health Promotion & Wellness (Human Performance), Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (2019)
• MS in Human Movement (Sports Conditioning track), AT Still University (2009)
• BS in Exercise Science (Biomechanics track), Pacific University (2003)

Her research integrates human performance science with veteran health systems, focusing on attentional focus strategies for tactical populations and social determinants of health (SDOH) interventions for suicide prevention. She leads Arizona's biannual Veteran Survey and has developed cross-cutting prevention models adopted in White House military suicide prevention initiatives.

Recent publications (2024-2025) demonstrate her pivot from foundational biomechanics research to large-scale veteran health systems analysis, with 70% of current work centered on SDOH-driven suicide prevention frameworks across military settings. Her tactical human performance studies maintain strong ties to foundational attentional focus principles established in her 2017-2019 work.

Research Leadership:

• PI for $2.4M DoD MTEC project on military readiness through upstream SDOH interventions
• Lead of 4-year Arizona Coalition for Military Families suicide prevention initiative ($436k total)
• Director of First Responder and Military internships overseeing 200+ annual trainees
• Collaborator with ASU Sun Devil Battalion on cadet physical performance systems

Cassalia chairs ASU's Veteran Suicide Mortality Review (2024-present) and serves on the National Strength and Conditioning Association's Executive Council for Sports Science and Technology, driving national standards for tactical athlete development.