Student Spotlight: Shavonne Lewis

Earlier this year, we announced our first ever Community Impact Scholarship recipients. These inspiring professionals are already a force for good in their communities and have the potential to change the world through Functional Medicine Health Coaching. Thanks to our partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine and a generous grant from the VoLo Foundation, we’re able to offer full tuition scholarships to our September 2024 Class for these six individuals. This week, we are excited to spotlight Community Impact Scholarship recipient and future health coach Shavonne Lewis.

Shavonne’s journey to becoming a health coach is deeply personal and relatable, fueled by the frustration she felt when health crises hit her family. Her mother’s unexplained stroke, her sister’s prolonged struggle with undiagnosed Lyme disease, and her own battle with Hashimoto’s disease led her to seek answers beyond conventional healthcare. Her questions and research eventually led her to functional medicine. These experiences ignited her passion for holistic health and her desire to share that passion with others navigating similar crises.

“I want to help other people like me, who don’t have the knowledge or the access or the resources, especially from communities of color…They’re living with chronic illnesses and diseases that could be healed by simple, holistic things.”

Shavonne Lewis, incoming FMCA student

With a natural drive to dig deeper and a holistic view of health, Shavonne is poised to make a significant impact on the underserved communities she feels called to coach. She has built a fulfilling career in public relations and marketing for a nonprofit that supports people with disabilities, where her expertise as a communicator shines. Deeply connected to her faith, Shavonne envisions integrating physical wellness with spiritual practices. She believes that true wellness encompasses emotional, physical, and spiritual health—and if that sounds familiar, it’s because she is intuitively speaking to the Functional Medicine Matrix, which she and her fellow students will learn more about once the program begins in September.

Shavonne’s dedication to making a difference extends to people with disabilities, a group often overlooked in healthcare. She aims to provide training and resources that address their specific health needs, moving beyond symptom management to holistic wellness.

We believe in Shavonne’s vision and can’t wait to see what she does with her Functional Medicine Health Coach Certification. Until then, we’ll enjoy the privilege of having her in class starting this September.

Watch the Interview

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

About the 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: So, yeah, let’s just begin. I’d love to hear about your background, how you found FMCA and decided to become a functional medicine certified health coach.

Shavonne: Yeah. So, a little bit about me. My name is Shavonne Lewis, and I am a Michigan-born girl. I live out in the West now in Las Vegas, and I have a 40-year-old son, but my journey and my passion for health coaching really was born out of personal experiences and just my own research about, kind of, medical things.

And so my mother had gotten sick when I was in my late 20s from a stroke, right? And she was young. She was about 40, 40-ish maybe, but they never could figure out what really caused it. And so what we always discovered or learned through her process was that stress is really what triggered her, kind of, health crisis.

And then I had a younger sister who, kind of, was going through some health trials for many years. We would take her to doctors. They never could figure out what was going on with her. She finally got to a functional doctor when we moved out west, and it was discovered she had Lyme disease and she was living with all of these really difficult symptoms and just problems that we could never figure out with traditional medicine.

And then even in my own experience, when I was married, we were trying to get pregnant. It wasn’t happening for me. I was relatively healthy. I was a little older in my 30s, but nothing abnormal going on with me. And it wasn’t until I saw a functional doctor that I learned about Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune condition that can impact your ability to get pregnant.

And so, kind of, just with my family and just doing research and discovering there are natural ways for you to heal your body and be well, that started birthing this other pathway for me. By day, I’m a communicator. I work in public relations in marketing for a non-profit that supports people with disabilities. And I love that work. That’s work that fills my cup.

But over the last few years, I’ve really been diving deep into total wellness, emotional, physical, spiritual, all the things. And so that’s what, kind of, got me on the path of, “What is this whole functional medicine holistic life about?” And through my experience, I want to help other people like me who don’t have the knowledge or the access or the resources, especially from communities like mine, communities of color that just have no knowledge that this kind of stuff is available to them and are living with chronic illnesses and diseases that could really be healed by some simple holistic things in nature type of things. So, that’s what, kind of, got me here. That’s, like, the medium version of the long version, and that’s quite the short. Yeah.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. So, tell me more about your community and how you hope to make a big impact, which I know that you will.

Shavonne: Yeah, thank you. You know, one, I’m a person of faith. So, that is a value that I hold very deeply to me. I believe in God, and I live my life for him. And I was raised that way. We were raised in church, all of that. And mostly a Black church. So, typically, not all Black church communities but we tend to and I find this in faith communities. There’s the similarity that we tend to disconnect from the body and only focus on the spiritual side of things. And we disconnect from the physical side. But just over the years what I’ve learned is that the creator designed us to be fully integrated—heart, soul, body, and mind. And we see that in nature. We see that in the way we interact with each other in our relationships. All of those things, he wants well-being in all of those areas.

And so one of the passion areas for me is to teach the physical well-being side to integrate that into the faith community. Like, you don’t have one or the other. You can have it all. And God designed it that way. So, that’s one of my passion areas is to bring faith communities online to this health and well-being lifestyle.

And then my other passion area just comes from the work I’ve been doing in the nonprofit that I work at for people with disabilities. It’s a very diverse organization, and those are one of the… You know, people with disabilities are often overlooked and underserved, especially when it comes to their health. And they just get medications and prescriptions and just fixes that don’t solve the root condition, just fix a symptom. And I think that there would be an opportunity for me to serve even on my day job in a capacity because we do value health and well-being there. And so just offering trainings or classes for small groups or something like that, I would love to do, too. So, those are, kind of, my two passion areas where I would love to serve in a more specific way.

Dr. Sandi: I can envision you serving both of those communities and really making a difference to help people create better health, because as you know, as a society, we are getting sicker and sicker. And people are getting chronic conditions at an earlier and earlier age. And it sounds like, from the time that you saw in your family, that people were succumbing to these chronic conditions, we can reverse the trajectory. And I am so glad that you found FMCA because we will provide you with the tools, the resources, the training, the connections to be able to really have that impact that you so desire.

When you were speaking of faith-based, it reminded of Dr. Mark Hyman, the Daniel Plan, which he did a number of years ago. And it was faith-based, the Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren, and they got groups together, meeting in church basements where they were getting healthier together. And very, very successful. So, I can really see you taking up the charge and spearheading that movement and really, really making a difference in people’s lives.

Shavonne: Thank you, thank you. Yeah. For the last three years, I’ve just been doing a small group with women who want to get healthier and become more whole. And I actually partner with… There’s an organization called Revelation Wellness. And so they incorporate some of the same type of things like the spiritual side but the physical, the mental, all of those pieces. And so I help facilitate some small groups, but I’m always like, “There’s more after the small group.” I can do it out of passion, but I want to be equipped with the right tools for people who really want to go deeper and need someone to walk closely with them for a longer period of time. And so I know that FMCA and this coaching program is just going to equip me to do that well and not just out of my, “I want the best for you.” Now I get to say, “I have the tools for you,” you know what I mean?

Dr. Sandi: Yes. Well, this has been wonderful to meet you. I’m committed to supporting you. You will be an outstanding Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach. I cannot wait for you to begin in September and start your journey with us, again, to truly make a difference. You will literally be saving thousands of lives.

Shavonne: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Sandi. I appreciate your time, and thank you and whoever was involved, the board, the team, the selection committee, and the donors who set something like this up to remove the barrier so we can get more diverse coaches out there and keep changing the world.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely.