Irina Todorova, PhD

Scientific Advisor

Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital

Faculty, Harvard Medical School

Irina_Todorova@post.harvard.edu

Todorova is Scientific Advisor at the IOC and the grant committee. She is a health psychologist with extensive research and teaching experience in psychological and social aspects of human development, health, well-being and health inequalities. Her research interests include migration and health, burnout in health professionals, health promotion interventions, experiences of health and illness, and qualitative/narrative health psychology. Todorova is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council at the IOC, which makes decisions on grants awarded by the Institute and about the Annual Coaching in Healthcare and Leadership Conference organized by Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital and the IOC. She is certified in coaching from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (now William James College).

Todorova is Clinical Professor at the Department of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University. She advises undergraduate and MPH and doctoral students as a member of their capstone committees and doctoral committees. She teaches courses in health psychology, health promotion, gender and health and qualitative and mixed research methods. She is Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) and was previously President of this society, as well as Co-chair of the Scientific Committee of the 33rd Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Croatia 2019. She is Editor of the Taylor & Francis Journal Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine (HPBM) and on the editorial board for Health Psychology Review; Psychology & Health and Cognition, Brain, Behavior. She has been guest editor of several special issues, most recently the Special Issue on Advanced Methods in HPBM; and the Special Section on “Women’s Reproductive Health in a Cultural Context”, in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2017). With co-authors she is the recipient of the Virginia and Warren Stone book prize for Suárez-Orozco, C., Suárez-Orozco, M. & Todorova, I. (2008). Learning a New Land: The Experience of Newcomer Immigrant Youth. Harvard University Press.

Full publication information: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irina_Todorova

Relevant publications:

Suárez-Orozco, C., & Todorova, I. (2006). Projecting the voices of Mexican-origin children Research on Human Development, 3(4), 211-228.

Montgomery, A., Todorova, I., Baban, A., & Panagopoulou, E. (2013). Improving quality and safety in the hospital: the link between organizational culture, burnout, and quality of care. British Journal of Health Psychology, 18(3), 656-662. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12045

Alexandrova-Karamanova, A., Todorova, I., Montgomery, A., Panagopoulou, E., Costa, P., Baban, A., . . . Mijakoski, D. (2016). Burnout and health behaviors in health professionals from seven European countries. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 89(7), 1059-1075. doi: 10.1007/s00420-016-1143-5

Sforzo, G. A., Kaye, M. P., Todorova, I., Harenberg, S., Costello, K., Kuo, L., . . . Moore, M. (2017). Compendium of the health and wellness coaching literature. Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.  May, doi: 10.1177/1559827617708562

Todorova, I. (2019) Kalimera: Cultural issues in coaching.  Dima Louis & Pauline Fatien Diochon (Eds):  Coaching beyond the surface: A critical case-based perspective to the practice, education and supervision of coaching. Routledge

Todorova, I. (in press) Health Coaching Research, International Handbook of Evidence-Based Coaching, Springer

Todorova, I., et al (2021). "What I thought was so important isn't really that important": international perspectives on making meaning during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Psychology and Behavioral  Medicine 9(1), 830-857. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2021.1981909