Video Still of Irina Torodova, Angela Passarelli and Michael Cavanagh

2021 Conference: Day 2 Opening & Anthony Grant Award for Research Excellence to Michael Cavanagh, PhD

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2021 Conference: Day 2 Opening & Anthony Grant Award for Research Excellence to Michael Cavanagh, PhD
Video Still of Irina Torodova, Angela Passarelli and Michael Cavanagh

Irina Todorova, PhD is a health psychologist with experience in psychosocial, gender and cultural aspects of human development and health. Her work is based on narrative and relational approaches to research, teaching and coaching with the aim of promoting personal and community wellbeing, development and equality. She has taught courses in health psychology and health promotion, as well as in research methodology such as Qualitative Inquiry at Harvard Graduate School of Education and currently at Northeastern University, Boston, where she is an Adjunct Associate Professor. Todorova advises doctoral and master students conducting relevant research, program development and evaluation projects. She has been awarded research grants for national and international projects - for example she has been Principal Investigator on grants funded by the WHO, EngenderHealth, Jacobs Foundation, European Commission Framework7 Program and Co- Investigator on NIH and NSF grants. Todorova was elected as Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS). She is Past President of EHPS, currently on the Executive Committee of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology and on other grant review and conference scientific committees. Thus, she has extensive experience with interdisciplinary and multi-cultural/ international research and professional teams, as well as in reviewing publications, conference papers and grant applications. She has been Editor of the European Health Psychologist, and is on the editorial board for Health Psychology Review; Psychology and Health and Cognition, Brain, Behavior. Currently, Todorova is Co-editor of the journal Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. Todorova is certified in coaching from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.


Angela Passarelli, PhD, is driven to understand how coaching can catalyze change within leaders that positively impacts those around them. Her work draws on such disciplines as organizational behavior, psychology, and neuroscience to yield nuanced, actionable insights on effective leadership development.

Dr. Passarelli’s scholarship and practice are part of her larger commitment to advancing the science of coaching. Given the field’s rapid and ongoing expansion, rigorous analysis becomes all the more imperative. A five-year member of the Institute of Coaching’s Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Passarelli now serves as the Institute’s Director of Research. In this role, she leads the Council’s grant selection process and spearheads other research-related activities at the Institute. Her goal is three-fold: to grow the global capacity for coaching research; strengthen the quality of such research; and increase practitioners’ engagement around the findings to enhance their own coaching.


Michael Cavanagh is an internationally recognized academic, consultant, practitioner in the field of leadership and coaching psychology. Michael’s work focuses on preparing leaders, teams and coaches to work effectively and sustainably in complex settings.  In his academic work he is the Deputy Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney (Australia) and Visiting Professor at Middlesex University (UK). He has coached leaders and managers at all levels from a diverse range of public and private, national and multinational organizations, both in Australia and internationally.   Along with numerous publications in the peer reviewed press, Michael is the principal author of the Standards Australia Handbook of Organisational Coaching. He is also the Australian editor of the International Coaching Psychology Review. Michael’s passion is educating coaches and assisting leaders, organisations and individuals to understand and address complex challenges in ways that increase the sustainability of the organisation, its people and the planet.

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