LOCAL ORGANIZERS

Irina Todorova, PhD works on issues related to psychosocial aspects of health and well-being, social change and health, and health disparities. She has received her degrees from Sofia University and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and has been a post-doctoral scholar and research fellow at the Department of Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University. Currently Irina is the Director of the Health Psychology Research Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, Research Scientist at the Center for Population Health and Health Disparities at Northeastern University, Boston and Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.  She is President-elect of the European Health Psychology Society (Presidential term starting 2008-2010), past editor of the European Health Psychologist, and consulting editor for Health Psychology Review.  She is also Executive Committee member of the Central and East European Society of Behavioral Medicine, Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2007 Conference of the Society for Critical Health Psychology, Boston, and has been a member of  conference Scientific Committees and International Program Committees.  Her research interests include gender and health; migration and health; social change in Eastern Europe and implications for health; qualitative/narrative research.  Her current and upcoming projects include: Women’s experiences of living with infertility; Narrative medicine and narrative competence, Psychosocial and health systems aspects of inequalities in cervical cancer screening in Bulgaria and Romania; Health in school-aged children – an international WHO affiliated study.

http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/bio_todorova.html

Liz Mongillo is a 4th year clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.  This past spring, she served on the steering committee for the 1st annual Boston Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies Conference, "Shifting Gender Identities in the Face of War, Globalization and Natural Disaster." Liz is also a member of the Boston Liberation Health Group, an organization working for change within the current health care system and a more just distribution of resources.  Her interest in health psychology comes from her strong belief in the interconnections between mind and body stemming from 11 years of training in the martial arts, as well as from her increasing awareness of the impact of health care disparities on mental health. In terms of research, Liz is particularly interested in the ways in which individuals experience and heal from trauma.   This fall Liz will be teaching an undergraduate course in social psychology and proposing a topic for her dissertation.  In the future, Liz is very interested in exploring the ways in which women experience and heal from trauma, particularly if they have a co-occurring mental illness. 

Miranda Waggoner is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Brandeis University, with specializations in medical sociology, gender, and social movements; her concentration is motherhood, pregnancy, and health. Miranda has previously examined the effects of volunteering on health, and her current research analyzes the social psychological impact of public health agendas, particularly the recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services breastfeeding advocacy campaign.