Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie, the C.E.O. and Medical Director of EmbraceYOU Weight & Wellness, is a dual Board Certified Internal Medicine physician and Obesity Medicine Specialist with a passion for promoting health through honesty and hope. Her interest in medicine started at a young age while witnessing her grandmother’s health gradually decline due to the consequences of obesity, diabetes, & hypertension.
Dr. Bollie attended Wesleyan College in Macon, George where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s in Biology. For her medical training, she graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. At George Washington, in addition to her medical degree, she also received a certificate for special training in Medical Education Leadership. Her Internal Medicine Residency was completed at the George Washington University Hospital where she also served as Primary Care Chief Resident from 2013-2014. She obtained her Board Certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2014. From 2014-2019 Dr. Bollie served over 2500 primary care patients as a primary care physician in the Bon Secours Health System in Richmond, VA, and had close to 10,000 patient visits. It was during her time at Bon Secours she matured her passion for treating obesity and weight-related conditions. After personally losing 40 lbs in 1 year (60 lbs total postpartum weight ) and learning more about obesity medicine, she formalized her experience by becoming board certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine in 2017.
From 2017-2019 Dr. Bollie was site leader & Medical Director for the Bon Secours Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program, where she helped over 60 program enrollees successfully lose an average of 40lbs within 6 months. Over the years Dr. Bollie has helped hundreds of general weight management patients, lose weight, and keep it off with or without weight loss medication based on the individual’s weight loss needs. Dr. Bollie is also skilled at assisting with medical weight loss prior to bariatric surgery and maintaining weight loss after bariatric surgery. In 2020, Dr. Bollie decided to combine her personal and professional experiences to create Embrace YOU Weight & Wellness. Embrace YOU Weight & Wellness offers a personalized, holistic, scientific approach to sustainable weight loss. Through her personal and professional experience, Dr. Bollie has learned that every body is different, and so their weight loss strategy needs to be individualized to their uniqueness for sustainable weight loss.
Dr. Bollie is an active member of the Obesity Medical Association. She also enjoys educating the public on weight-related topics and working to reduce weight bias and the impact of systemic racism. Her writings have been featured in Forbes, Yahoo News Online, and many other sites and publications.
When Dr. Bollie isn't practicing medicine she enjoys living by example. She makes time for her Faith, family, friends, fitness (especially outdoor running), preparing delicious healthy food, and doing anything creative from reading, writing, enjoying music, to arts & crafts.