Student Spotlight: Evangelia Zarogianni

Earlier this year, we celebrated the Community Impact Scholarship recipients, individuals committed to transforming health and wellness within their communities. Thanks to the partnership between the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, the Institute for Functional Medicine, and a generous grant from VoLo Foundation, these scholarships provide full tuition for our March 2025 Health Coach Certification Program class. Today, we’re honored to spotlight Evangelia Zarogianni, a passionate doctor and aviation medicine specialist from Greece.

Evangelia’s journey to functional medicine health coaching began long before her medical career. Growing up in Greece, she witnessed her mother’s struggles with bipolar disorder during a time when psychiatric care was limited. Watching her mother’s experiences fueled a lifelong drive to uncover more effective and holistic approaches to health.

“I started searching actively, and the term ‘functional medicine’ popped up. It was like a domino effect after that.”

Evangelia Zarogianni, incoming FMCA student

Throughout her career, Evangelia has remained steadfast in her mission to find better ways to serve her patients. Her dream is to create a functional medicine community within the military, focusing on prevention and empowering individuals to take control of their health. She envisions starting small—impacting the 300–400 families in her air base’s tight-knit community—and eventually building a functional medicine clinic within the Air Force Hospital.

For Evangelia, joining FMCA represents more than professional development. It’s an opportunity to find the community and collaboration she has long sought. We’re thrilled to welcome Evangelia to FMCA and can’t wait to see how her journey unfolds. Her vision for healthcare transformation, grounded in both her personal experiences and professional dedication, embodies the heart of our mission at FMCA.

Watch the Interview

Watch Evangelia’s Student Spotlight interview with Dr. Sandi here.

About VoLo Foundation

VoLo Foundation is a private nonprofit organization with a mission “to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health” and a vision for a “planet where all beings are ensured access to a sustainable and clean environment, health services, and education.”

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: I’d love to know just what drew you to functional medicine health coaching.

Evangelia: So, first of all, before even becoming a doctor, I was a family member of a patient, of a chronic patient. My mother was diagnosed when I was five years old with bipolar disorder. And 35 years ago in Greece, psychiatry wasn’t at its best. And even if I was a child, I can see that she wasn’t supported. And the only thing that I saw is prescribed medications and that’s it, nothing else.

So, it felt like there’s more to this. So, the first time I even thought of becoming a doctor was only I thought there must be more. So, I wanted to find something more. Being a civilian doctor wasn’t in the plan for me because of the finances. So, then I became a military doctor. And once I’ve done that, I was trained with Western medicine.

And in the beginning, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I just followed my teachers. But I saw in the everyday practice that we don’t have anything more to say to healthy people, relatively healthy people, within normal range. We don’t have anything to tell them towards quality of life.

One patient that I had in my first base was a soldier. He was 20 years old. He had a chronic back pain because he got a cyst in his back. And the only thing that doctors told him was take anti-inflammatory pain medication and wait till it’s worse enough to have a surgery.

I couldn’t believe that. I mean, he’s 20 years old. And as doctors, we are telling him, wait till you can do nothing and then we’ll do something for you. And he kept coming to the medical center in the base because of his pain. And that was the first thing that started me searching on my own and actively searching. There has to be something more.

And that was 2011 or 2012 when I started actively searching there has to be something else. And a term functional medicine popped up. Okay, that’s new. I don’t know what this is. And it was like a domino effect after that. But that was before my residency.

So, being in the military, I had to do a residency. And from the options that I had, family medicine was the closest to what maybe functional medicine does, preventive medicine. And then I had my residency. I didn’t enjoy hospital life. I think it’s not a healthy environment to live in. It felt for me more like a sick care or only symptom managing, not going after the root cause.

And I also can see my colleagues. The first day that you start your residency and four years ahead, by the looks, you can see that it’s not healthy. The life that you did for four years with the 24-hour shifts, no sleep, poor food, no hydration, constantly stressed. I could say that I don’t really like that.

And I finished my residency in 2020 when COVID came, but I was so fixed that I will pursue somehow to be trained in functional medicine. And I think that the time came. And when I saw applications for scholarships, I think, okay, I don’t have anything to lose. That’s the dream. Why not?

Dr. Sandi: Well, that is a beautiful, beautiful story. And what attracted you to the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy?

Evangelia: Well, I mean, I’m following this Academy like 10 years, 12 years now. I don’t know, the coaches, all the teachers that you have, I follow them independently and I’m fascinated by them. So, having all that come together and even you… I mean, I had a lot of teachers through the years but hearing you guys, it makes sense to me. That’s why.

Dr. Sandi: Well, that just warms my heart.

Evangelia: Yeah, it’s true. It’s true.

Dr. Sandi: And I’m curious to know is if after you graduate and now you are a doctor and a functional medicine health coach, what would be a dream for you to really impact thousands of lives? What would you like to do with your training?

Evangelia: Yeah, well, the first dream that I had when I figured out functional medicine, it makes sense to work in this way. In the air base where I work, I closely work with fighter jet pilots. I’m also an aviation medicine specialist. And military families live close by to the air base, so this is a small community of around 300 or 400 families, like a small village. And they have us a small medical center there. So, it’s a really small community, but you can impact them. You know, me directly with the fighter pilots and, in the medical center, with my colleagues, their family members.

And I had a dream. Obviously, I cannot start with the whole country, but a small village and talk with the families, and they create a small community of like-minded people and focus on prevention and getting, basically, their freedom back. Because the thing that I’m seeing in everyday basis is a fear, but they do not know exactly what they’re fearing about. What is the fear?

I see people coming to me, and they’re in constant stress and fear of getting ill, but they seem, kind of, lost. And me educating them, but, you know, it’s not a lost cause. You can get your freedom back. You can get ahead with your health. There’s things that you have, you can do in everyday basis, and they are simple and they are free. And you can be the leader of your life empowering them.

Yeah, this is something that I’m trying to do even now. But having all this knowledge and all the dots that I gathered through the years connected, it will be much easier for me, because now I watched master classes, I collected books through the years, but I feel like I’m trying to find things by my own, but there is already found by others, and there’s an easier way for me to do that.

And then maybe apply that on a bigger scale and have a wild dream. I don’t know if I can do it someday, but my wild dream is to create a functional medicine clinic within the Air Force Hospital. That’s my dream.

Dr. Sandi: Well, it is good to… Yes, well, it’s wonderful to dream big. That’s what I did when I founded Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. I had a big dream, and it is never too late. And I started FMCA when I was 65.

And you have a long road ahead where you are going to really transform healthcare for the people that you are serving and serving in the future. So, I’m just so, so honored and proud that you’ve chosen FMCA. And I’m here, our whole community is here to support you and help you to make those dreams a reality. And we can’t wait to get to know you when you begin this class.

Evangelia: And, also, thank you to the community. This is a huge for me, because I really felt… I remember talking to my friends and telling them, I feel professionally loneliness. I feel like there’s nobody else. Why can’t I find no one else to talk about these kind of things?

Through the years, I felt frustrated but it made sense in my mind. So, now pure happiness for me, because I can finally talk with someone directly that makes sense in the same way. There are things in the same way. It’s pure happiness for me.

Dr. Sandi: Wow. Well, that just gives me chills. And that is what we hear so frequently from our students and our graduates. This is a community. This is a community for life. You are not alone. You will come, and you will find, with your cohort group, with our teachers, our course facilitators, our whole community, a field like we are coming together with shared values, shared desire to help people create better health for themselves and for their families. So, you’re going to make a huge difference in the world.

Evangelia: This feeling of belonging in a team, it’s really new for me. And I see myself. This is so new for me, because all these years, literally, I was alone in this. Now, it’s so new, that it’s a little bit out of my comfort zone, because all these years, I was perfectly with a book and with a webinar and trying to figure out my own. And now it’s like, this is happening.

Dr. Sandi: Yes. Well, you are not alone. You are part of our community now. And we are together going to make this happen for you, make your dreams a reality for what you’d like to use this training for.

Evangelia: You told me that it’s never too late. This also hits me hard, because now that I see that a lot of people now starting and they’re young, I feel like I’m almost 20 years from the first day in the medical school in 2003. And it feels a lot of times that all this effort, all these years, and where did it get me, I need to relearn everything. But, okay, this is for a moment. And then I go back to optimism and say that this had to happen for me to come here, so I will go from here.

Dr. Sandi: Yes. Well, we’re going to help you every step in the way. Well, Evangelia, this has been just a delight to talk with you. And I just can’t wait to welcome you. So, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. And I have office hours, so when you begin class, so welcome again to FMCA.

Evangelia: Thank you so much.