Ralph Vernacchia, Ph.D. directs the undergraduate and graduate programs in sport psychology at Western Washington University, as well as WWU's Center for Performance Excellence. He has presented extensively on variety of sport psychology topics throughout the nation and authored four sport psychology textbooks, including “Coaching Mental Excellence”; “Inner Strength”; and “The Psychology of High-Performance Track and Field”. He is a fellow and certified consultant of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).

Dr. Vernacchia serves as a performance consultant to the Western Washington University Athletic Department and is a member of the USA Track and Field (USATF) Sport Psychology Sub-Committee as well as an instructor in the USATF Level I, II, and III coaching education programs. He has traveled internationally as a performance consultant with several USA international track and field teams, including the 2000 USA Olympic Track and Field Team that competed in Sydney, Australia.

He has been inducted into the Western Washington University Athletic Hall-of-Fame in honor of his accomplishments as Western's cross country and track and field coach from 1973-1987. Dr. Vernacchia served as the distinguished visiting professor in the department of physical education at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY for the 2003-04 academic year. In 2005 he was inducted into the AAHPERD National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) Hall-of-Fame.