Student Spotlight: Ghadeer Garcia

Today, we are honored to introduce Ghadeer Garcia, an Afro-Latina community advocate whose journey toward functional medicine began during one of the most challenging seasons of her life. While navigating the emotional and physical toll of divorce, raising two young children, and learning how to care for herself amidst constant change, Ghadeer realized she lacked the tools and support needed to truly nurture her mental, emotional, and physical well-being. That experience sparked a deep commitment to holistic healing and inspired her to pursue a path rooted in functional medicine and whole-person care.

“I really see myself continuing in the lane of working with people who look like me, people who don’t look like me, people who have faced challenges in their life, like having to navigate change, people who have decided now’s the time for me to get serious about my health.”

Ghadeer Garcia, September 2026 FMCA Student

As someone who lives at the intersection of multiple communities, Ghadeer brings a uniquely compassionate and culturally informed perspective to health coaching. Raised in the Midwest and deeply connected to both her Afro-Latina identity and her lifelong work in social service and community building, she is passionate about supporting women, particularly Black and brown women, who often feel unheard or overlooked within traditional healthcare systems. With FMCA training, Ghadeer hopes to empower individuals navigating life transitions, caregiving responsibilities, and personal health challenges by helping them build sustainable wellness practices and advocate for their own healing. Her mission is to create spaces where people feel seen, supported, and equipped to take charge of their health with confidence and dignity.

Watch the Interview

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

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: It is so thrilling for me to welcome Ghadeer Garcia to our FMCA community. I want to be the first to congratulate you for being one of our scholarship recipients starting for our September class. And I would love to hear what inspired you to become a part of this FMCA health coaching community.

Ghadeer: Thank you so much, Sandi. Gosh. I’m so honored and thrilled to be here. I really got interested in functional medicine and just holistic care in general when I was going through a very difficult time in my life, which was my divorce. And just going through, learning how to cope with all of the changes that were happening, obviously, externally, but also internally, and how I could better take care of myself. I realized in those hardest moments that I was not equipped to deal with all of the ups and downs with things that were happening inside my body mentally, emotionally, and physically while also raising a toddler and an elementary-school-aged child. So, there was a lot of learning that took place during that time in lots of different ways. And I realized how important it was to really have a good handle on my health and started pursuing learning about that.

Dr. Sandi: Well, you’re in the right place. What about FMCA attracted you?

Ghadeer: Goodness. I would say, probably the number one thing for me was how comprehensive the curriculum is and how responsive everybody has been from my very first outreach and the questions that I asked. Just looking at the website and trying to learn a little bit more about who the organization is, it was very comprehensive, very easy to find the information that I had questions on. And I started reading the articles and couldn’t stop.

Dr. Sandi: Wow. I love that. That is music to my ears. And so many people come to us with a mission, a calling to serve others, and it’s such a good time to train to become a health coach. How do you hope to use this training? What community do you want to serve? How do you envision going out and helping people create the best health possible?

Ghadeer: Oh, goodness. I love this question, because I live in an intersection like most of us do. I’m Afro-Latina. I grew up in the Midwest. I am the eldest daughter. I am a mom of young adults now. My kids are grown. And I have aging parents. And so, I live in a multitude of communities and have always spent my life working in the space of giving back, of social service, of community building. And so, I really see myself continuing in the lane of working with people who look like me, people who don’t look like me, people who have faced challenges in their life, like having to navigate change, people who have decided now’s the time for me to get serious about my health.

And so, primarily focusing on women, particularly Black and Brown women, who are not often heard, who don’t have the advocacy or the support they need in the traditional medicine world to get their health taken care of while also uplifting anybody else that I can. Whosever path I cross, that’s my target.

Dr. Sandi: Wow. I just hear that passion in your voice. And you’ve identified populations that really need the services of a health coach because access to services from licensed providers is becoming harder and harder. When you do get in to see a doctor, for example, you often leave after seven minutes. That’s the time you’re allotted. And you don’t feel heard. You don’t feel listened to, particularly many women. And you’ve identified an area that you can certainly specialize in, people who have aging parents or populations, again, who can benefit from coaching that is addressing so many of the lifestyle factors that are really critical for good health but are hard to implement.

And so, I am just thrilled to welcome you to our community. We’re here to serve you as you start this journey with us. And as you know, we begin long before the class actually starts in September. So, keep an eye out for emails, communication about some webinars that we will be having, meet and greets, getting started. And I just can’t wait to support you. So, thank you for choosing and finding FMCA, and filling out that scholarship application.

Ghadeer: Thank you for the opportunity. I’m so thrilled and grateful to be part of this community. Thank you.

Dr. Sandi: Well, thank you. To be continued. Bye now.

Ghadeer: Take care.