National Guard soldier stationed with Warrior Research Center as part of new Talent Development Program

As part of the Army National Guard Bureau’s new Talent Development Program, the Warrior Research Center in the School of Kinesiology has welcomed Capt. Ann Robbins for a year of training.

“The goal of this program is to take applicants from all over the nation that are within the National Guard in a ‘traditional guardsmen’ Title 32 status and put them on Title 10 Active Duty orders to learn about specific departments or programs within the Army,” Robbins said. “The intent of the Talent Development Program is to allow the selected soldiers to learn best practices and developments in the specific department they are partnering with to bring back to their assigned states to help develop that same area.”

Robbins is part of the Missouri National Guard where she is based out of Fort Leonard Wood. She has been in the service for eight years; prior to that, she earned her bachelor’s degree in sports and recreation management from Missouri State University and her master’s degree in administration with an emphasis in recreation management from Central Michigan University. She has been working in the health and fitness field for 13 years.

“The specific area that I wanted to work in based on my background is Holistic Health and Fitness, or H2F. H2F is a program that the Army implemented in October 2020, so it is still very new,” she said. “This program is designed to help increase soldier readiness by enhancing the quality of the five health domains: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and sleep. I am hoping to learn the best research practices and studies that could be conducted within the National Guard population to improve all five of those domains. Each state has an H2F project team that is doing the same in trying to incorporate civilian entities to create different partnerships and opportunities to meet the goals of the H2F program. Placing me with Auburn University is allowing me to do that as a broadening assignment.”

Robbins will work alongside the Warrior Research Center’s director, JoEllen Sefton, as well as graduate students who are conducting research studies with tactical athletes.

“We’re honored to be chosen as the first location for the Army National Guard’s initative,” Sefton said. “Capt. Robbins has a background in health and fitness which makes her the perfect person for this program. She comes to us directly from commanding a border control unit in Texas and will take what she learns here back to her unit in Missouri. Capt. Robbins will be assisting with our research with military, firefighters and police officers, auditing classes, and training alongside my graduate students. We look forward to this exchange of ideas—sharing what we do in the Warrior Research Center and learning everything we can from her while she is stationed with us for a year.”

Robbins said she is particularly interested in the Warrior Research Center’s partnership with the AU ROTC program.

“That was my source of commissioning and it's the development of the future leaders within all components of the Army,” she said. “The projects and programs that the Warrior Research Center does with the AU ROTC program can really start to introduce the cadets to the ins and outs of H2F in some capacity which they can carry over to their units after they commission. I am extremely fortunate and grateful that I was selected to be here.”