Functional Health Coach, Speaker and Founder

After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas at Tyler, Michelle Peña chose entrepreneurship over the clinical path. She co-founded and co-led nine fitness centers across East and North Texas, growing her original gym to 4,800 members in the mid-2000s, and founded the Tyler Turkey Trot, a Thanksgiving Day 5K that has grown into one of the top 15 Turkey Trots in the state of Texas. In late 2019, she launched her most recent gym startup, Rise RX Fitness, which reached $1M in less than two years, built during a season when most businesses were closing their doors.

In 2016, Michelle began building a second body of expertise alongside her nursing background, pursuing certifications and training in holistic health and functional medicine. That combination of clinical foundation and functional training became the lens through which she'd eventually help women outside the gym, not just inside it.

In December 2024, a life-altering accident brought her face to face with what years of pushing through had cost her, cementing the conviction now at the center of everything she does: discipline is not the solution to dysregulation.

That conviction, paired with nearly a decade of functional health training layered onto her nursing background, became the foundation of Wellness with Michelle, combining functional lab testing, targeted nutrition, nervous system regulation, and root cause strategy to help women understand what is actually driving their symptoms and build a foundation that holds.

Michelle speaks, coaches, and consults at the intersection of physiology, performance, and entrepreneurship. Whether she is on stage, behind a microphone, or across the table from a client, her message is the same: you don't have to choose between the life you're building and the health that carries it.

Michelle works with high-performing women who look successful on the outside but feel depleted underneath. Women navigating gut dysfunction, hormone shifts, chronic stress, and nervous system dysregulation while still carrying full lives and full leadership roles. She helps them restore energy, clarity, and capacity by addressing physiology at the root, not by chasing symptoms or pushing harder, but through a structured process that stabilizes the nervous system, metabolism, gut, and hormones in the right order.

On stages and in her coaching programs, Michelle is known for honest storytelling and a willingness to name what high achievers often feel but rarely say out loud. Her mission is to help women work with their bodies instead of against them, restoring stability, expanding capacity, and reclaiming the vibrant, purposefilled lives they were created to live.

Training, certification and experience.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and advanced certifications as an Integrative Health Practitioner, Level Two (IHP2), Nutrition Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner.

She has worked in health and wellness for nearly 30 years, building and operating fitness businesses alongside a functional health coaching practice.