Having accrued nearly a decade of professional expertise, Sara B. Ciallella, PT, DPT, NCS, excels as the lead spinal cord injury specialist and therapist at Providence St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California. Since 2015, her duties have included overseeing a team working with patients undergoing acute rehabilitation in physical, occupational and speech therapy, as well as conducting patient evaluations, physical therapy diagnosis, treatment planning, goal setting and tracking progress. Alongside her work in the hospital setting, Ms. Ciallella has also served as a registry physical therapist with Therapists Unlimited since 2015.
To prepare for her career, Ms. Ciallella earned a Bachelor of Arts in exercise sports sciences from Concordia University Irvine in 2011. She followed with a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the Western University of Health Sciences in 2014, with which she was granted the Rebecca E. Pabst Memorial Scholarship Award. Subsequently, she became board-certified in physical therapy by the Physical Therapy Board of California and attained a neurological clinical specialist certification. In addition, she is certified in basic life support-cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A distinguished alumna, she was recently featured in the article “A Passion to Excel,” published in the Concordia University Magazine in 2022.
In the early years of her career, Ms. Ciallella gained initial expertise as a student physical therapist at EZIA Human Performance and Palomar Health between 2013 and 2014. Upon the completion of her studies, she went on to work as a spinal cord injury recovery specialist for Project Walk Spinal Cord Injury Recovery through 2014, at which point she served Tenet Healthcare as a physical therapist from 2015 to 2018. In order to remain abreast of changes and developments in her industry, she maintains membership with the American Physical Therapy Association and Omicron Delta Kappa.
To accompany her field of study, Ms. Ciallella worked as a spin instructor at LA Fitness from 2015 to 2018 and has continued to dedicate time as an indoor spin instructor at Chuze Fitness since 2017. Desiring to utilize her entrepreneurial spirit, she is an independent representative of Zyia Active, an active lifestyle brand that promotes embracing activity with “excitement, vigor and delight.” Having been a consumer of the company for her active lifestyle, she fell in love with the products, which gave her the idea to sell them. Through this endeavor, she sells activewear and fitness fashion garments, profiting more the $200,000 in only two years. With her success as a salesperson, a talent she notes she inherited from her father, she has earned two free trips to Mexico and the Dominican Republic and was honored as one of the top 10 sellers for Zyia Active in 2021.
Reflecting upon her career thus far, Ms. Ciallella takes great pride in successfully leading the accreditation of Providence St. Jude Medical Center’s spinal cord injury unit’s Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities in February 2022. For her first accreditation as the lead, she was proud that the unit did not receive any negative markings for the accreditation, which is audited and renewed every three years. Among other achievements, she was named to the Who’s Who of American Colleges in 2014 and the recipient of Omicron Delta Kappa honors in 2009. Ms. Ciallella attributes her success to the example set by her parents, as they have always supported and encouraged her to strive to do her best. She also recognizes the support of her siblings, friends, and husband, Gian Marco, whom she met 15 years ago and recently celebrated eight years of marriage.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Ciallella looks forward to experiencing the continued growth and success of her career as a physical therapist and as an entrepreneur. Above all, she notes that her family comes first and hopes to eventually work as a per diem physical therapist so she can devote more time to raising her two children, Aria and Luca. In her spare time, Ms. Ciallella enjoys spending quality time with her family, as well as running in half marathons, attending wine tastings and visiting Disneyland. She is also a volunteer with a local brain injury walk.
