Taft Cleveland is a highly skilled and creative healthcare design professional with 20 years experience in healthcare functional and space programming, strategic facilities planning, clinical transitioning services for new facilities, urban design and master planning. Taft is actively involved in topics of social justice, health equity and inclusion. He serves as one of fifteen members of SmithGroup’s global J.E.D.I. committee, working towards creating a more equitable work culture for the firm.
In 2022, Taft was recognized as Healthcare Design Magazine’s HCD 10: Industry MVP Award along with Espy Harper and Dr. Tammy Thompson for his exploration grant entitled the Community Achievement Racial Equity (C.A.R.E.) Framework. The framework provides actionable and measurable steps health systems may employ to serve leaders in addressing health equity. Through the C.A.R.E. Framework, industry members can now act on health equity design and break the cycle of health disparities by influencing access to education, healthy foods, and safe communities.