Practice EBD Clinic

As GS&P’s Director of Research, Sheila serves as a firm wide resource for planners and designers as they apply research evidence to enhance quality, safety and efficiency in healthcare settings. Sheila also contributes to this important field of evidence-based design by conducting original research aimed at understanding how the physical environment affects health and performance outcomes. She provides internal education to GS&P employees, conducts post-occupancy evaluations, and provides learning labs for clients. A member of The Center for Health Design’s Research Coalition and an active participant in national-level research activities, Sheila is a recognized expert in the field. Having earned her Ph.D. in 2004 from Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, she also holds an MS (life science, environmental toxicology) and BS (science education) from the University of Tennessee.

Rosalyn is President and Principal Interior Designer of CAMA, Inc. in New Haven, Connecticut. An interior planning and design firm steeped in evidence-base design, the firm's mission is to create interior environments that improve outcomes. Roz has been a practicing healthcare designer for 30 years. A fellow of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), she has served as the chair of its Healthcare Specialty Network and is a past National President. A recipient of many design and service awards, Roz is the current board chair for The Center for Health Design and author of the book, "Evidence-based Healthcare Design."

Barbara is Associate Vice President with HDR Architects in Alexandria, VA. Having had experience working in a large urban hospital, she understands the importance of balancing the organization’s needs while focusing on putting the patient first by creating a healing environment based upon the most current research. In her current role at HDR, she coordinates the use of the DOD’s World Class/Evidence-based Design check list and research results with all disciplines on large military projects, several over one million square feet. She serves on The Center for Health Design’s Environmental Standards committee, the EDAC Advisory Board, and is currently on the EDAC exam revisions committee. She recently coauthored a white paper entitled “Furniture Design Features and Quality Care” which includes an EBD furniture checklist. This checklist is included in the DOD’s World Class Checklist and its use is encouraged on all DOD healthcare projects.

Doug Elting is president of Visions in Architecture, a firm that was created to advance the principals of evidence based design. Doug has forty years of healthcare design experience.

As the Research Manager at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Amy Keller brings a passion for strengthening architectural design decisions with research. Amy's work generates primary and secondary research to demonstrate how the application of research creates buildings that improve outcomes.

Before joining SOM, Amy worked as a Research Associate and Design Strategist for The Center for Health Design where she advanced and improved the Center’s Pebble Project initiative and evidence-based design process. She has co-led multiple research studies that link performance factors to the quality of the physical environment and haspresented her findings in variety of healthcare and design conferences and publications. Amy holds a masters degree in Architecture from the University of Minnesota, where she studied the relationship between architecture, healthcare, and qualitative research.

Caroline is a Senior Design Researcher for Nurture by Steelcase and Steelcase Inc. She specializes in human-centered design research on healthcare delivery and environments. She is interested in both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research to uncover needs, design to them and their measure their impact. Recent projects include the effect of the design of a break room on healthcare staff rest and rejuvenation with Spectrum Health, the results of which will be presented at Healthcare Design ’11. She is conducting ongoing research with University of Kentucky HealthCare on the effect of the design of a Chair-centric Fast Track for low acuity patients in an Emergency Department. Her work has been published in HERD, Healthcare Design Magazine, and Facility Care. She has a Masters Degree in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology where she was a Research Assistant at the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access as well as the Human Factors Lab at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Eileen is the Senior Partner for Mercury Healthcare Consulting, LLC located in Alexandria, Virginia, who supports clients embracing evidence-based design (EBD) in health facility projects as a means to improve patient, staff and resource outcomes. In 2009, she received The Center for Health Design’s (CHD) Changemaker Award in recognition of her leadership and contributions to EBD. Eileen currently serves on CHD’s Research Coalition and is a member of the Facility Guideline Institute’s 2014 Health Guidelines Revision Committee. She has delivered numerous national presentations about EBD and has authored a number of EBD articles and white papers including her most recent one, 'Furniture features and healthcare outcomes,' which includes an EBD Furniture Checklist, as well as contributing to study guides used by individuals preparing for the EDAC exam.

Upali has a Ph.D. from the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University, with a certificate in Health Systems and Design. She heads the research unit at American Art Resources, and focuses on the effect of art and the visual environment on healing, satisfaction and productivity in the healthcare setting. She serves on The Center for Health Design's EDAC Advisory Council, the Editorial Board of the Health Environment Research and Design Journal, and the Research Committee for the Society of Arts in Healthcare. Her doctoral work “Sensthetics” has been published as a book and addresses the role of the visual and non-visual senses in choreographing experiences.

Debajyoti is the former Director of Research at HKS, Inc., and Executive Director of CADRE (Center for Advanced Design Research & Evaluation). He has spent most of his professional life examining the influences of the built environment on people and processes. His areas of interest include healthcare, healthy environments, public architecture, performance-based design, organizational learning, and developing indicators of facility performance. Debajyoti holds a Ph.D. in architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology, and has over 22 years of experience in research, practice, and teaching in the United States, Canada, and India.

Xiaobo is a Research Associate at The Center for Health Design (CHD) and focuses his efforts on special research projects, as well as CHD's major research initiative, the Pebble Project. Working closely with Pebble Project partners, planners, designers and other researchers, he examines the impact of the built environment on human behaviors and healthcare outcomes, evaluates the effects of evidence-based design innovations and disseminates research findings through presentations and publications. Xiaobo obtained his Ph.D in Architecture and a certificate in Health Systems and Design from Texas A&M University, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in architecture from Southeast University in Nanjing, China.

Jane is the principal and founder of JSR Associates, Inc., a senior living and healthcare consulting firm providing the following services; client focus groups for creative program and care model development, innovative funding strategies, and design and project management services based on evidence based research, sustainable design principles, and resident focused/patient centered programming. She is a healthcare and senior living consultant, who passionately promotes culture change, sustainability, and universal design solutions. She sits on The Center for Health Design's Research Coalition and Environmental Standards Council. Jane is the former AAHID Board of Regents VP and sits on the revision committee for the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities. Jane chairs the Senior Living Sustainability Guide committee, a committed group of volunteers working to create a sustainability guide for senior projects. Jane speaks internationally on senior living, aging, healthcare, evidence based design and sustainability.

Alberto is Co-founder and Principal of Salvatore Associates. He has over 30 years of experience in healthcare architectural master planning, programming, department planning, and design. He has successfully lead teams nationally and internationally on projects large and small. Over this time he has come to understand and define Architecture and the Physical Environment as only one component in the design of the overall Environment of Care (EOC) that is required to design state of the art, world class, successful facilities for patients, their families and caregivers alike. Alberto was a key participant in defining the base knowledge used to integrate EBD into practice. He also participated in the development of the EDAC examination and sits on the EDAC Advisory Council.

Peter is Vice President of Irwin P. Sharpe & Associates—a research and market consulting firm specializing in new product development, technology transfer and the impact of design interventions on the market. The firm has wide experience in the building and construction and architectural services areas; and conducts research in energy efficiency applications for motors, generators and transformers, electrical distribution systems, lighting and HVAC systems. The firm is actively involved in research and clinical trials related to antibacterial materials for touch surface, potable water distribution and HVAC components. Peter is on The Center for Healthcare Design’s EDAC Advisory Council. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in biology and chemistry; an MBA from Rutgers University School of Management; and has worked as a researcher at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

Mardelle is a professor and director of the Center for Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M University. A registered architect with 25-years of experience in professional practice, she is founder of ART+Science, a design research firm. Mardelle has conducted research and published extensively on the topic of pediatric facility design. Her books include Healthcare Environments for Children and their Families, Design for Critical Care, and Health Facility Evaluation for Design Practitioners. A specialist in building evaluation and programming, she is the William Peña endowed professor at the College of Architecture at Texas A&M.

Ellen is a Research Associate at The Center for Health Design (CHD) and has been a guiding force for the research efforts of several Pebble Project partners. Experienced in both the owner's and consultant’s sides of the table, Ellen has been responsible for large-scale program management, capital planning, service standards planning, brand management, developing and conducting design research for the built environment and extensive cross-departmental coordination. Ellen has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning and Global Executive MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School. She has completed doctorate-level coursework in multivariate analysis. Ellen serves on CHD's Environmental Standards Council and EDAC Advisory Council.

Dr. Zhe is a Senior Researcher with Cannon Design. Supported by her nine years of experience in design practice in the US, Singapore and China, her research focuses on evidence-based design for health. She recently won the International Academy Awards in Research Project and has published a number of first-author and single-author papers in peer-reviewed journals and publications for the World Health Design and the AIA (American Institute of Architects); presented findings at the international Environmental Design Research Association conferences, national AIA conferences, Gerontological Society of America and Active Living Research conferences; and has received awards and grants from the AIA, Nurture by Steelcase and TX Architectural Foundation.