The 2024 HCANZA Excellence Awards took place last month at the annual Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association in New Zealand where we are thrilled to have seen quite a few WCA graduates make the finalists list across the 6 categories.
We are extremely proud to have seen a number of graduates win their respective categories and wanted to share this great news while also letting you know more about what they are doing in their working lives as a Health and Wellness Coach to be awarded this year’s prizes.
It takes dedicated, exceptional people to be recognised in this way and they are living proof and reminders that choosing the right training program is an essential base upon which to build your work/business.
FIONA COSGROVE
Distinguished Leadership Award for Services to Health and Wellness Coaching

This award was the first of its kind at the annual awards event and was not awarded based on the 6 award categories but as its own unique award for Fiona’s contribution to the health and wellness coaching industry in Australia for over 15 years. Her Significant Contributions to Health and Wellness Coaching in ANZ go much further though:
As a university lecturer, Fiona has contributed to the education of future health professionals. By sharing her extensive knowledge and experience, she has helped shape the approach of many practitioners towards client-centred care and holistic wellness. For example: Fiona co-wrote and taught a module on Wellness Coaching in RMIT’s Masters in Wellness program. Her involvement in higher education has helped integrate wellness coaching into academic curricula, ensuring that future health professionals are exposed to these important concepts.
Fiona has raised the profile of Health and Wellness Coaches and health behaviour change with her book “Coach Yourself to Wellness” has sold over 5,000 copies. More recently, she has published research papers as part of her Masters in Phil Cambridge and is currently working towards her PhD through Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK.
Fiona founded Wellness Coaching Australia, Australia’s first Health and Wellness Coach training organisation back in 2006. This pioneering effort has been instrumental in developing a new generation of over 6000 health coaches creating positive health impacts in many different communities. WCA was also the first international training provider whose program is approved for eligibility for National Board Certification run by the Medical Board of Examiners in the US in 2018.
Fiona is a big advocate and has been instrumental in establishing professional standards for wellness coaching in Australia and overseas. In her role as Vice Chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s Wellness Coaching initiative, she plays a key role in shaping industry direction and policy. Fiona continues to play a crucial role here in establishing and promoting professional standards and best practices. She was on the original board for HCANZA, and currently sits on the HCANZA Technical Advisory Group
She has a long-standing commitment to wellness coaching, education, and its massive impact on the health outcomes for many Australians and people across the globe. The breadth of her impact is inspiring to all. She is a role model to many.
Learn more about Fiona > https://www.wellnesscoachingaustralia.com.au/about-us/fiona-cosgrove/
SUE COSGROVE
Health and Wellness Coach of the Year

Sue has 30+ year history within the healthcare industry and more recently 10 years as a leader coach in healthcare. Over this 10 year tenure she noticed a real declining energy of the healthcare workforce. Leveraging her position in health, she observed limited programs written to support the healthcare workforce to care for themselves. Within leadership, very little was offered to support staff to care for themselves. Most healthcare workers’ education supports them in caring for. It left a large gap – who was caring for the carers?
Sue left her cosy place in the research healthcare world and set creating individual and group coaching programs based on her needs analysis of the health care sector, her practice, experience, and many qualifications. Her programs are designed to coach the healthcare workforce to grow their awareness of Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue at work. Increased awareness allows this workforce to reflect, explore and experiment with their solutions for compassion satisfaction at work.
Compassion Satisfaction allows the workforce to keep their energy, health and wellness to keep turning up and giving themselves to care for others every day. Compassion Satisfaction awareness enables those who attain it to be fully present with themselves, their colleagues and their clients daily.
Sue has seen and measured the impact of Compassion Satisfaction awareness on individuals and teams in healthcare since her business commencement in 2022. Over the last two years, her impact has inspired her to create a courageous vision for the future. Sue’s utopic vision is to see her compassion satisfaction awareness program embedded into healthcare teams across the land as part of everyday conversations. Compassion Satisfaction will become a way of being for the future healthcare workforce.
Learn more about Sue at:
MICHELLE HASANI
Health and Wellness Coach of the Year

As the owner of Wellbeing by Design Australia and a Sage Womens Health consultant, Michelle Hasani, has over 30 years of experience across various sectors, where she excels in creativity, leadership, and innovation. As a Wellbeing Co-design Specialist and Coach, Michelle transforms workplace cultures through sustainable change in Wellbeing, Mental Fitness, and Leadership.
Her unique “Wellbeing by Design” business model has been successfully implemented across organisations, fostering thriving cultures through tailored co-design strategies. She empowers mid-life professionals, business owners, and corporate leaders with innovative coaching and strategic wellbeing initiatives.
Michelle has leveraged the Positive Intelligence program to develop her own Mindful Leadership by Design, which has achieved remarkable results in organisations and individuals, including:
- Significant reduction in burnout
- Enhanced communication across teams
- Development of calmer, more confident, and conscious leaders
Her vision is a world where leadership is built on a foundation of wellbeing to enable workplace resilience and success. With expertise in policy development, wellbeing strategy, systems change, and coaching, she fosters calm, confident, and conscious leadership, creating cultures where people truly thrive.
Learn more about Michelle at:
MELANIE WHITE
Health & Wellness Coach Advocacy Award

Melanie White is a champion for health and wellness coaching in Australia notable for her role as CEO at Sage Women’s Health where her exceptional leadership, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration have significantly influenced institutions, advanced professional standards, and engaged public forums to promote health coaching.
Melanie is deeply passionate about health coaching and has dedicated her career to advancing the profession.
She has collaborated with eighteen health and wellness coaches, many co-qualified, to raise the profile of their work, particularly in supporting women through menopause. Melanie’s efforts have not only elevated individual practices therefore highlighting the collective impact of coaching.
Melanie’s unwavering commitment to professional development of our industry is evident through numerous contributions including her here role a trainer, assessor and Business Coach here at Wellness Coaching Australia spanning 10+ years, her contribution as a member of the HCANZA Board as the Coach representative. She also spearheaded the development of menopause-specific guidelines, resulting in three comprehensive white papers.
Find out more about Melanie and her current work at Sage Women’s Health