Rachel Cassalia

Rachel Larson holds her PhD in Health, Wellness and Human Performance.  She is a Clinical Associate Professor in Sports Science and Strength and Conditioning and Director of the Military and Veteran Resilience and Health Innovation Collaborative in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University (ASU). She has been teaching at ASU since 2016 and instructs on various topics within the realm of human performance.  Larson developed and directed the Master's Strength and Conditioning degree until fall of 2023.

Larson is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with distinction (CSCS,*D) and a Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator certified with distinction (TSAC-F,*D) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).  As a strength and conditioning coach, Larson has worked with a myriad of athletes & tactical populations over the past 13 years. More recently focusing her work with rugby, fire, ROTC and military populations. Larson previously worked as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Chandler-Gilbert Fire Academy and currently oversees our First Responder and Military internships.  Larson also works with the ASU Sun Devil Battalion to improve physical performance and to educate cadet leaders on physical training guidelines, to become force multipliers today and in their future military leadership roles.

In addition, Larson has presented both locally and internationally on attentional focus and resistance training, tactical physical readiness, health and fitness approaches to preventing Veteran suicide, and upstream prevention addressing social determinants of health for service members, Veterans and their families. 

Larson’s research interests include attentional focus strategies for human performance, and health and physical performance across the life span of a Service Member/Veteran.  She leads a data and evaluation team working on various projects addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) for Veterans in the state of Arizona.  She has been contracted on multiple Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation (CDC-F) projects to create a state scorecard and index for both state readiness and high risk assessment.  These projects have led to the implementation of comprehensive strategies for resiliency and risk reduction to improve health outcomes for Veterans.  Larson’s work was highlighted in a recent White House release on the Military and Veteran Suicide Prevention Strategy.  Her team also facilitates a biannual Arizona Veterans survey that gathers data on Veteran’s needs across the state to further these efforts. 

Larson also runs a large scale DoD (USAMRDC-MTEC) funded project to increase readiness through cross-cutting prevention in the military.  On this project, Larson and her team work with multiple military instillations in Arizona and the Midwest to increase signature behaviors and decrease negative behaviors.