SUZANN (“Suzie”) PILEGGI PAWELSKI is a well-being consultant, author, and coach specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships, health, and performance. Her Scientific American Mind cover story, “The Happy Couple,” was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts (Penguin Random House), the best-selling book she wrote with her husband, James. Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, and The Greater Good Science Center.
Suzie pens a popular blog on well-being for Psychology Today that has garnered more than 1 million reads to date. Her writing and work have been featured in numerous top-tier media including CNN, Larry King Now, Time magazine, Oprah magazine, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the (London) Times.
Suzie is especially passionate about supporting the well-being of today’s youth, which has led her to lecture at elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and universities, where she provides practical tools and strategies to help young people thrive. In her role as the well-being chair of Philadelphia International FC, she leads mental fitness trainings for coaches and players.
Additionally, she gives keynotes and sold-out Relationship Gym ™ workshops around the world with her husband, James. Together, Suzie and James developed several highly-rated positive psychology courses for the general public including one for “Wondrium” (formerly “The Great Courses Plus”), and another for Coursera that more than 50,000 people have already taken. They recently recorded an Audible Original on relationships due out in 2026.
Previously, Suzie directed award-winning media relations campaigns for Fortune 500 companies at the New York City headquarters of two top global public relations firms: Weber Shandwick Worldwide, where she was a vice-president, and Burson-Marsteller, where she received back-to-back media practice awards for her national placements. Earlier in her career, she worked in publicity at Radio City Music Hall and as an associate producer for HBO Downtown Productions and The Joan Rivers Show, where she liaised with leading publishing houses to feature top health and medical authors on the Emmy Award-winning program.
Suzie has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She uses her certification in health coaching to help people make better food and lifestyle choices. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, James, and their son, Liam. Raising Liam is her greatest joy and proudest accomplishment.
How do you get to “happily ever after?”
In fairy tales, lasting love just happens. But in real life, healthy habits are what build happiness over the long haul. Happy Together, written by positive psychology experts and husband-and-wife team Suzann Pileggi Pawelski and James O. Pawelski, is the first book on using the principles of positive psychology to create thriving romantic relationships.
Combining extensive scientific research, real-life examples, advice from relationship scientists, and fun exercises and quizzes for couples, this book will help you find and feed the good in yourself and your partner. You will learn to develop key habits for building and sustaining long-term love by:
Inspiring, encouraging and accessible, Happy Together is an essential roadmap to rewarding, long-lasting romance for any couple, whether you’re looking to start off a relationship on the right foot, weather difficult times, reignite passion, or transform a good marriage into a great one.
With a foreword by Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology