Dr. Sara Bayramzadeh joined Kent State University as the Coordinator of and Elliot Professor in the Healthcare Design program in 2018. She is recognized for her research on psychiatric units and operating room designs. Sara is interested in interdisciplinary research efforts to enhance healthcare outcomes through effective environmental design. Such outcomes include efficiency and the safety and satisfaction of both patients and staff. As an advocate of interdisciplinary collaborations, she believes true innovation emerges from learning in the context of such collaborative efforts.

In addition, she is interested in opportunities to bridge academia and practice for design solutions derived from research and actively looks for ways to promote research in design practice. Her practice-based research experience includes collaborations with HGA Architects and Engineers and BBH Design.

Her research on outpatient facilities design, psychiatric units design, and surgical environments has appeared in journals such as Health Environments Design & Research, Applied Ergonomics, and BMJ Quality & Safety. Sara has been a recipient of multiple national and international awards, such as CHD Kent State Healthcare Environment Award 2021 - Conceptual Category, 2021 AIA-AAH U40 List awardee, 2020 New Faculty Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award, and 2016 Joel Polsky Academic Achievement Award from the American Society of Interior Designers for outstanding dissertation. She is also the lead for Kent State’s the AIA-ACSA Design and Health Consortium group.

She holds a Master of Architecture from Miami University and a Ph.D. in Design, Construction and Planning with a concentration in Interior Design from the University of Florida (2015).

Sharmin Kader, Ph.D. in Architecture, is a designer, researcher, and educator with over twelve years of work experience. Her project areas focus on healthcare facilities, student living-learning environments, and senior living. Currently, she is working as a research scholar at Kent State University. As a researcher, she has refined her skills on the mixed-method research design and has developed expertise on post-occupancy evaluation (POE) process. Throughout her academic and professional life, her work has received many recognitions. She has developed POE tool for hospice facility - Hospice Environmental Assessment Protocol (HEAP). She has worked at TreanorHL as lead design researcher and three of her practice-based research projects received the Certificate of Research Excellence (CORE). She has been serving as a Chair of the Board of the Environment Design Research Association (EDRA) since August 2020. She has presented in many international venues, and has served as a reviewer of conferences, AIA Convention, HERD Journal, and others.