Kristen Casto

Kristen Casto was inducted into the inaugural College of Applied Human Sciences Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. She was previously inducted into the College of Education and Human Services Hall of Fame and named the College’s Distinguished Alumna in 2015.

Casto earned a Bachelor of Science degree in speech pathology and audiology from West Virginia University in 1991. That same year, she was recognized as the College’s Outstanding Graduate and William G. Monahan Award recipient. She also received a U.S. Army commission through WVU’s Reserve Officer Training Corps with Distinguished Military Graduate honors and was granted an educational delay to pursue graduate studies. She went on to earn a Master of Science degree in audiology from WVU in 1993 and later received a clinical Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) from Central Michigan University.

Casto built a distinguished career in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps focused on auditory injury prevention, clinical audiology, and hearing conservation for military personnel. Early in her service, she managed hearing conservation and audiology services across multiple Army installations. Selected for advanced training, she earned a Ph.D. in human factors engineering from Virginia Tech in 2009. Her dissertation examined pilot performance and auditory signal quality in Black Hawk helicopter simulators was honored with the Stanley N. Roscoe Outstanding Dissertation in Aerospace Human Factors Award in 2010.

As Chief of the Acoustics Branch at the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Casto directed research on auditory injury prevention and return-to-duty standards. She later served as Audiology and Hearing Conservation Consultant to the Army Surgeon General, where she provided oversight and policy leadership for the Army Hearing Program and supported Department of Defense-wide hearing health initiatives.

Casto has held senior roles at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General, and the U.S. Army Medical Command, including Executive Officer to the Army Surgeon General and Special Assistant to the Surgeon General and Commanding General. Following her retirement from active military service, she transitioned to civilian scientific leadership roles, including work as a Senior Human Subjects Protection Scientist at General Dynamics Information Technology.

Her professional affiliations include the National Hearing Conservation Association, where she served as president, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Academy of Audiology (fellow), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and the Order of Military Medical Merit. She received the Army Medical Department’s “9A” proficiency designator for exceptional career contributions and was recognized as the 2014–2015 Outstanding Recent Graduate by Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.