Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy, Ph.D., MBA, RYT, CPC is a global thought leader, executive educator, and wellness advocate at the forefront of integrating neuroscience, embodied practices, and AI to accelerate leadership development and personal growth. For over 20 years, she has been redefining how to lead, succeed, and thrive from the inside out as creator of Embodied Success®, the Breathe & Burn® mind-body system, and Power Living® empowerment platform.

The mission of Embodied Success® is to help people tap into their innate potential, shift their internal state, communicate with clarity, and lead with purpose creating sustainable success and meaningful impact in the world. Training programs focus on mastering human-first skills like adaptability/resilience, communication and influence, leadership, and innovation. A Harvard Business School-trained strategist with a BA in Sociology & Design from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in World Religions, she leverages her multi-disciplinary background combining proprietary frameworks with embodied exercises, real-world case studies, industry data, AI tools, and more to deliver engaging and impactful experiences that lead to measurable results.  She offers a global perspective — having also done Executive Education in Global Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, as well as an executive program on Strategies for Sustainability from Stanford University. Her expansive perspective helps her connect dots that most people don’t even see.

As a Certified Professional Coach from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), she has an interactive and informed style. She has worked with global organizations such as MetLife, PwC, Bloomberg Media, Deloitte, QVC, and Estée Lauder. Former VP at MTV Networks and founder of VH1 Online and VH1@Work Radio at the beginning of the commercial Internet, she is an innovator who understands the journey of the high-performing professional and has personally experienced it all… from success to near death to full-system transformation. After almost dying in 1997, she left her corporate career and founded the first yoga studio in Harlem, diving deeply into what made the human body, brain, and spirit thrive. Her story has inspired people around the world from Slovenia to Hong Kong — and was even featured in Oprah’s book, Live Your Best Life!

She is seasoned at making embodied practices accessible for a professional audience with deep credibility in both the business and yoga/wellness worlds. Considered a mind-body expert, she has over 1,000 hours of teacher training in yoga and mindfulness including a comprehensive understanding of nervous system regulation which underpins most of her programs. She is a National Spokesperson for the American Heart Association, served six years on the Board of Yoga Alliance (including Chair and Interim CEO) setting standards for yoga teaching in the U.S., and was one of the first African Americans featured on the cover of Yoga Journal. She has presented to entities like the National Institutes of Health and led programs for physicians and staff at hospitals like Mount Sinai. She has also taught yoga to global leaders on a private section of The Great Wall of China and has been a headliner for the XYoga Dubai Festival. 

Inspired by her mother, she started “playing” with yoga at four years old mimicking her poses and “weird” breathing. Her father, who was called “Mr. Speech,” also used yoga-based breath and relaxation techniques in his work as an acclaimed professor of communication and theatre arts. An advanced student of Sri Dharma Mittra (with over 700 hours of teacher training in his system), her initial teacher training was at Integral Yoga Institute. She participated in one of the last satsang gatherings (i.e., audience with a master) with Sri Swami Satchidananda, whose teachings inspired Dr. Dean Ornish’s pioneering work on reversing heart disease. As biographer and protégé of the late yoga master Tao Porchon-Lynch, she spent a decade traveling the globe with Tao curating 66 one-of-a-kind events at places like the Pentagon and the Age of Happiness Festival in Montenegro, working with notables such as Sadhguru and Dr. Deepak Chopra. She also co-authored two award-winning books and produced two online courses to preserve Tao’s insights and teachings. They were featured in the 2017 Athleta “Power of She” campaign for their work inspiring women and girls. Tao graced the cover of the Athleta catalog and they were both featured in the magazine, online, in stores, and in store windows across the U.S.

Called “smart with a heart,” she has been a moderator at the United Nations and was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She has participated in exclusive Forums with heads of state, multinational CEOs and other leaders in Brazil, China, India, Jordan, Morocco, Mexico, Myanmar, South Africa, Tanzania and Switzerland, including being a Discussion Leader for the Annual Meeting in Davos. She has also moderated at the World Government Summit in Dubai and led The Gandhi Effect™ workshop for an event hosted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She has received over 20 awards across various disciplines from Emerging Entrepreneur from INC Magazine and the William J. Clinton Foundation (2006) and the Women Who Dare To Be Different Award presented by Congressman Edolphus Towns and The Women’s Caucus (2008) to the American Heart Association’s prestigious Power Award (2009) and the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (2018) for her book, Shining Bright. Her accomplishments were added to the U.S. Congressional Record.

She has traveled to over 50 countries and has led programs in 15 countries. Although she is American, she was born in Ghana, started school in Australia and studied in Italy. Her parents — Dr. James Scott Kennedy and Janie Sykes-Kennedy — were pioneers in using arts and media for cross-cultural communication and leadership training, working on five continents for over five decades. She is currently leading a project with her mother, who is 90 years young, to capture insights from her trailblazing work. Her own work has been featured in various media around the world, such as CNN, NBC, Fox TV News, Hallmark TV, The New York Times, Women Entrepreneur, The Network Journal, Black Enterprise, SELF, Prevention, Pure Inspiration, Delicious Living, Real Health, Essence, ARD TV in Germany, Fit ‘N Style in Lebanon, El Mercurio in Chile, and Tokyo FM in Japan.