Dr. Suzie Carmack

PhD, MFA, MEd, ERYT 500, NBC-HWC, PCC, C-IAYT

Named Executive Well-Being Coach of the Year by Finance Monthly (2024) and Alumnae of the Year by the Department of Communication of George Mason University (2018), Dr. Suzie Carmack is an American author, yoga scholar, and executive leadership and work/life well-being coach. With 32 years of experience as an educator in both higher education and professional education, she is the Department Chair for Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda at the Maryland University of Integrative Health; Senior Scholar for the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University; and the Founder and CEO of YogaMedCo.

Known for her ground-breaking and pioneering efforts to destigmatize the practices of yoga and mindfulness in workplaces and government agency settings in the early 2000's, Dr. Carmack has been personally commissioned to share resilience and compassionate leadership trainings with the teams and senior leadership of the U.S. Department of Defense; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the U.S. Treasury Executive Institute; the U.S. Air Force; the U.S. Department of Education; the U.S. Surgeon General; the U.S. Parks Service; the Health Resources and Services Administration; and the Pan American / World Health Organization. She has personally coached 100's of senior leaders in her evidence-informed YogaMedCo method, and she has trained and certified 1000+ coaches, leaders and teams in this method for their personal and professional development.

With a passion for helping servant leaders and service-driven healers to recover from burnout so they can get back to joy and serve the greater good, she is the author of the #1 best-selling books Well-Being Ultimatum (2015) and Genius Breaks (2017). She also was the senior science contributor on the topic of stress management for Weight Loss for Life by Hopkins Press (2021), and was invited to share her thoughtwork on addressing the growing prevalence of U.S. physician burnout in Embracing Complexity in Health by Springer (2019). Her next book Yoga for One: How to co-create an inclusive and evidence-informed practice on and off the mat was published in August 2024 by Singing Dragon/Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London. In it, she shares her YogaMedCo methodology -- to offer yoga, healthcare and wellness professionals her simple, systemic and scientific framework for co-creating evidence-informed and inclusive programs that integrate the practices of yoga, lifestyle medicine, and coaching to promote work/life well-being.

DEGREES

• PhD, Health Communication, George Mason University (2014)
• MEd, Health and Kinesiology, University of Texas at Tyler (2009)
• MFA, Theatre and Arts Administration, University of Alabama and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (1991)
• BA, Communication Arts, Allegheny College (1989)

CERTIFICATIONS

• C-IAYT, Certified Yoga Therapist, International Association of Yoga Therapists
• PCC, Executive Leadership Coach, International Coaching Federation
• NBC-HWC, Board-Certified Health Coach and Trainer of Health Coaches 
• ERYT 500, Yoga Teacher and Trainer of Yoga Teachers 

BOOKS

• Carmack, S. (2024). Yoga for One: How to Co-Create an Inclusive and Evidence-Informed Practice On and Off the Mat. London: Singing Dragon Publishers.
• Carmack, S. (2017). Genius Breaks: Optimize Your Workday Performance and Well-being. Fairfax, VA: Body Doctrine.
• Carmack, S. (2015). Well-Being Ultimatum: A Self-Care Guide for Strategic Healers – Those Who Live in the Service, Leadership and Healing of Others. Fairfax, VA: Body Doctrine.

BOOK CHAPTERS

• Carmack, S. (2022) Stress Management. In Cheskin, L., et. al. (2022). Weight Loss for Life. Johns Hopkins University Press. [Senior Science Contributor].
• Carmack, S. (April 2019). U.S. Physicians’ Burnout: A Systems-level problem in need of a socio-ecological solution. In Sturmberg, J., ed. (2018) Embracing Complexity in Health: the Transformation of science, practice and policy. Springer.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Wolever, R. Q., Cline, T. R., Weiss, J. M., Carmack, S., Schultz, C., Arloski, M., & Lawson, K. (2024). Group Health & Wellness Coaching: development and validation of the required competencies. BMC Health Services Research, 24(1), 392.
• Ahmadian, M., Carmack, S., Samah, A. A., Kreps, G., & Saidu, M. B. (2016). Psychosocial predictors of breast self-examination among female students in Malaysia: A study to assess the roles of body image, self-efficacy and perceived barriers. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 17(3), 1277-1284.

DISSERTATION

• Carmack, S. (2014). Making Sense of Well-being: A mixed-methods study applying sense-making theory to explore the role of interpersonal communication competence and social support in physical, mental, emotional and comprehensive well-being. Doctoral dissertation. (George Mason University).

IN DEVELOPMENT