Dr. Suzie Carmack, PhD, MFA, MEd, ERYT 500, NBC-HWC
With 30 years of experience helping individuals, organizations, and government agencies to thrive in their health and well-being, Dr. Suzie Carmack is an award-winning board-certified health and wellness coach (NBC-HWC); yoga teacher trainer (ERYT 500); yoga therapist; and well-being scholar (PhD).
As an early pioneer in the “office yoga” practice movement, Dr. Carmack developed her YogaMedCo method over the course of 20 years, and transformed it into a 500-hour training curriculum in integrative health coaching, yoga teaching and yoga personal training that is the only training program in the world endorsed by both NBHWC and the Yoga Alliance (RYS 200 and RYS 300). Concurrently, she spent 30 years in higher education as a professor and course designer, training 1000’s of undergraduate and graduate students in public health leadership, ethics, coaching and strategic communication practices.
Dr. Carmack (Suzie) is the author of two #1 best selling books that help busy people to optimize their workday engagement, performance and well-being: Genius Breaks (2017) and Well-Being Ultimatum (2015). She is also the leading stress management science contributor for Hopkins University Press’ Weight Loss for Life (2022); was a chapter author in Embracing Complexity in Health by Springer (2019); and was the lead researcher and story-telling designer for the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report (2020). She has also shared her thought leadership with the U.S. Department of Defense, as the lead author of a series of white papers and strategic plans that positioned warrior well-being promotion as a matter of national security (2015).
In addition to her leadership of YogaMedCo, Dr. Carmack maintains her private coaching and consulting practices. She is regularly commissioned by public and private sector organizations to conceptualize, design, deliver and evaluate well-being in the workplace interventions, including the Pan American / World Health Organization (2013-2015); the U.S. Treasury Executive Institute (2020); and the U.S. Department of Education (2021). She also coaches senior leaders in their prevention of burnout (using the framework she shares in her book Well-being Ultimatum) and enjoys mentoring future authors and course designers in the development of their own online platform through her Genius Inner Circle community.
Dr. Carmack continues to engage in applied research efforts that seek to advance the well-being promotion field, as a Senior Scholar for the George Mason University Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. She is currently collaborating on a funded two-year project with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that is investigating the impact of well-being coaching (using Carmack’s YogaMedCo method) on mid-career physician-scientists’ personal well-being, perceived stress, self-compassion and leadership performance. She is also engaged in a national research consortium (of multiple universities) that is designing online interventions that aim to promote well-being and prevent suicidal ideation, attempts and completions for underserved populations.
With a passion for sharing the gift of yoga with those who might not otherwise find it, Dr. Carmack was named Alumni of the Year by George Mason University in 2018 for her work bringing yoga interventions to workers in healthcare, education, and military service fields (an effort now called the Genius Break Project). She also continues to dedicate her time to the advancement of the coaching and yoga teaching practice fields, currently serving on the NBHWC Group Coaching Competency committee, and advising the Health Coaches New Zealand and Australia Association (HCANZA).
Dr. Carmack resides in Summerville, SC (near Charleston, SC) with her fiancee Bob Shircliff. They love visits from their five adult children and one grandchild, practicing yoga, and enjoying their lowcountry lifestyle.
