Ellen Taylor, PhD, AIA, MBA, EDAC
Vice President for Research, The Center for Health Design
Ellen Taylor brings more than 30 years of experience in architecture, research, and business to leading The Center’s research team. She is a registered architect and member of the AIA who was recognized by Healthcare Design as the HCD10 Researcher in 2017, an award recognizing significant contributions to the industry. A nationally and internationally recognized writer and speaker, she has led numerous grant-funded research programs and published numerous peer-reviewed papers. Ellen has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Global Executive MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School, and a PhD in design, patient safety and human factors from Loughborough University in England. She serves as the Vice Chair for the FGI Health Guidelines Revisions Committee, on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Health Environments Research & Design (HERD) Journal and American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), and she was the 2022 President of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health.
Shary Adams, OAA, AIA, ACHA, EDAC
Healthcare Practice Area Leader, Gensler
Access to adequate medical and mental healthcare resources is one of the most pressing challenges facing the world. Shary has committed her career to helping organizations expand their services, as well as develop new strategies and innovations that improve treatment for those in need of this complex medical and mental healthcare.
With more than 35 years of experience in healthcare design and leading integrated teams, Shary excels in getting laser-focused on a problem and defining the best possible solutions. As a leader in the industry, Shary has shared her expertise and insights in media outlets, as well as global and domestic conferences.
Elizabeth A. Sysak, PhD, MsEd
Behavioral Health Consultant Leader, Blue Cottage of Cannon Design
Dr. Elizabeth Sysak has almost two decades of experience in the mental and behavioral health field. Liz is a seasoned executive leader who has also served as a clinician throughout her career. She operates with a “patient first” mindset and fervently pursues paths to optimize how we deliver care to our communities.
She has co-led change at every institution she has encountered. Liz has co-led creating and expanding mental health crisis services, psychiatric and med psych inpatient units, outpatient and specialty clinics, and emergency services. Additionally, she has established training curriculums and leadership academies and seminars to assist with sustaining changes.
Dr. Sysak was responsible for resolve crisis services under UPMC as well as the emergency department at Western Psychiatric (Currently Western Behavioral), consult liaison service, psych care +, the safety department, the drug and alcohol engagement center, and mobile mental health therapy program. Liz took her experience to serve as the administrator over behavioral health at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, overseeing their expansion of a new inpatient unit, crisis stabilization center, consult liaison services, and partial programming. She served as the Chief Executive Officer at Fairmount Behavioral Health System establishing two adult specialty inpatient units one for LGBTQ+, one for women who have experienced acute trauma, as well as expanding a partial program for adolescents.
Liz co-led the reconstruction of the psychiatric emergency department at UPMC developing a milieu concept to reduce re-traumatization for patients and families. The psychiatric emergency department experienced a complete operational and cultural transformation under Dr. Sysak’s leadership.
She has served as adjunct faculty at numerous universities and colleges. Liz thrives on teaching the next generation of clinicians and leaders. Her areas of expertise span crisis and emergency services, addiction treatment, change-management, and leadership.
She recently joined Blue Cottage to serve as their Behavioral Health Consultant Leader to establish a practice reflective of the current needs across the country. Her mission is to educate, partner, and drive innovation and connection to better serve our communities.
Adeleh Nejati, RA, PhD, LEED AP, WELL AP, EDAC
Senior Associate, Senior Healthcare Planner, Researcher, NBBJ
Adeleh Nejati, RA, PhD, LEED AP, WELL AP, EDAC, is a senior associate, a senior healthcare planner, and a researcher with NBBJ in San Francisco, CA. With more than a decade of healthcare project experience, Adeleh brings a strong research and design background supported by research-based, analytical problem-solving abilities. Blending her design and research experience, Adeleh takes a holistic approach to create highly efficient and caring healthcare settings for patients, families, and staff. She has a passion for engaging with key stakeholders, using computational and lean planning tools to build consensus towards informed decision-making.
Tammy Felker, AIA, ACHA, RN, EDAC, LEED® AP BD+C
Senior Associate | Healthcare Planner | Healthcare Architect, NBBJ
Tammy Felker is a Healthcare Planner and Behavioral Health Specialist at NBBJ. She is a clinician with 12 years of nursing experience and over 20 years’ experience as a healthcare architect – one of the handful of nurse-architects in the country.
The focus of her career over the past 10+ years has been behavioral health and she is widely recognized for her behavioral health expertise and often presents on the dramatic impact design can have on patient outcomes. She has delivered healing environments for pediatric, adolescent, adult, and geriatric populations. Tammy utilizes Lean principles and transparent communication to translate the needs of patients, staff, and stakeholders into high-performance facilities. She introduces design elements that promote a sense of normalcy and healing while balancing patient and staff safety considerations.
From master planning to programming and planning to design, the scale of projects she has worked on ranges from renovation of a single room to a new, free-standing hospital of 450,000 sf with 172 beds and the ability to expand to 1.2M sf and 600 beds. Clients include: Overlake Medical Center, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Children’s Hospital of Colorado.
Laura Malinin
Director, Nancy Richardson Design Center, College of Health and Human Sciences/Associate Professor, Interior Architecture and Design, Colorado State University
David Sass, RA, LEED AP, Lean
Senior Vice President, CannonDesign
David Sass is an architect and behavioral healthcare specialist, playing a role in the majority of projects executed by CannonDesign’s behavioral health practice over the past 15 years. David’s experience and expertise in mental health planning spans a diverse range of projects at all scales, from system master planning to new mental health hospitals to behavioral health unit renovations/ rejuvenations. His role includes bringing the latest trends and best practices in behavioral health programming and planning to each project. A LEAN certified professional, David identifies opportunities to improve processes, eliminate inefficiencies that may impact delivery of services and patient care, and elevate the spatial environment for patients, clinicians, and families alike.
David has had the opportunity to work with major state and institutional clients across North America in the delivery of behavioral health projects, including Sheppard Pratt, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dayton Children’s Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Northwestern University, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and IWK Children’s Hospital. Recently, David led the clinical planning and behavioral health architecture for the redeveloped Cordilleras Mental Health Campus in San Mateo County.
Angela Mazzi, FAIA, FACHA, EDAC
Principal and Senior Medical Planner, GBBN
Angela Mazzi’s research on socio-cultural contexts provides perspective on how culture reflects in architecture and user experience. This has led her to focus on experience as a factor in healing in behavioral health design. Angela is Past President of the American College of Healthcare Architects and President-elect of AIA Cincinnati. She is also the founder of Architecting, a community consisting of a podcast, online learning, and weekly clubhouse room “Architects as Healers: Buildings as Medicine.” Her research linking wellness to design has been published in many healthcare journals and presented at national and international conferences. She is a peer reviewer for Health Environment Research and Design (HERD) Journal and Academy of Architecture for Health Journal and 2022 recipient of the HCD10 Top Architect Award.
Martine Lamy, MD, PhD
Associate Professor | Division of Psychiatry, Associate Chief of Staff, Mental Health, Medical Director for the Neurobehavioral Psychiatry Continuum of Care, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center | University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Martine Lamy, MD, PhD is a child psychiatrist and pediatrician who has dedicated her career to the care of youth affected by neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and intellectual disability. Clinically, she focuses on the inpatient psychiatric care of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and co-occurring challenging behaviors and/or severe mental illness. Over the past 5 years, she has supported the expansion of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry Continuum of Care in order to improve the delivery of safe and effective psychiatric health care to youth with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Meredith Banasiak, M.Arch., EDAC, Assoc. AIA
Director of Research, Boulder Associates
Meredith Banasiak, M.Arch., EDAC works at the interface of research and practice as Director of Research for BA/Science, the research and innovation group of the design firm Boulder Associates. In this role, she leads real-world research with clients and design teams to support data-driven, science-informed design for improving health, experience, access, and performance. Meredith led the research on two Center for Health Design Platinum Touchstone awarded Behavioral Health projects.
Meredith serves on the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) Board of Directors. She is featured in the 2020 documentary, Built Beautiful: An Architecture and Neuroscience Love Story, and has published in psychology, clinical, and design research journals and books. Her current passion project is producing Science + Design, a YouTube microlearning series.