What are your goals in your role at your company?
Encourage and support our team of wellness providers. In a competitive industry with potential for physical and emotional burnout, it is important to nurture our team members. Offering employees opportunities to grow and a sense of work-life balance translates to exceptional customer care with a long-term provider.

What are your goals for community involvement?
I’m excited to continue to support the South Suburban YMCA. This branch is much more than a gym. They’re a mobile food pantry site, have community gardens, an orchard to provide free produce, support youth character development, and provide social support and connection for many members.

What’s your biggest passion, and why?
Animal welfare. I use my business as a vehicle to raise funds for animal charities via our annual Spalloween event. We retail lines that support animal welfare, and I make recycled jewelry and donate profits to a basset and beagle rescue. I’m a longtime vegetarian, too.

What is it that drives you?
I dedicated my childhood to competitive swimming. I used to resent the long hours swimming, but that training made me a successful entrepreneur. I learned young what hard work and sacrifice feels like, and that I can do my best and still lose. Now I use “losses” to motivate me to improve.

What are your future aspirations?
I’d love to participate in massage therapy research initiatives to advance my profession’s credibility. I truly believe that massage therapy can help with our nation’s opioid crisis, but solid research is vital. I want to support other wellness entrepreneurs as they grow their practices and share what I’ve learned. 

Reasons she’s a Forty:

1.) Cassie grew East Village Spa from an independent massage therapy clinic that opened in 2007 to a 6,200-square-foot day spa with 25 employees.
2.) She serves as chair of the Iowa Board of Massage Therapy.
3.) She has raised over $12,000 for animal charities with her annual Spalloween fundraiser.
4.) She was an active volunteer with the Historic East Village Neighborhood Association, including serving as board secretary for two years and chairing the East Village Holiday Promenade from 2009 to 2016.

See all 2018 honorees