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Pioneering Women Leadership: Driving Bold Transformations in Healthcare Design & Construction

AIAU25-AAH02R
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1 LU
5.00
Course expires on: 01/22/2028
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Description

Women have historically been at the forefront of healthcare innovation, driving advancements in patient health, safety, and welfare. From Clara Barton improving healthcare processes to Marie Curie pioneering healthcare technology, Florence Nightingale championing infection control, and countless women advancing evidence-based design, women’s leadership has been transformative.  

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion featuring influential women in healthcare design and construction. These trailblazing professionals will share their career journeys, leadership insights, and strategies for overcoming challenges. They will reveal their leadership philosophies, the key lessons they've learned throughout their careers, and their empowering approaches to uplifting others. Whether you’re an established professional or just starting out, this event offers inspiration and practical advice to help you navigate your path to leadership in healthcare design and construction. 

This session was recorded live on May 13, 2025.

Learning Objectives

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Explore the career paths and contributions of women leaders in healthcare design and construction. 

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Discover the unique and powerful impacts of women’s leadership in healthcare design and construction, and how this engagement drives progress in patient health, safety, and welfare.  

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Gain insights into industry dynamics, emerging trends, and innovative strategies.  

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Learn practical advice on how emerging professional women can equip themselves to ascend to future leadership roles in the field of healthcare design and construction.  

Hosted in partnership with the Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH).

AAH

Instructors
Rachel Birnboim
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Assoc. DBIA

Rachel is Co-Managing Principal of the New York Office and a seasoned Senior Project Manager with 26 years of experience, and a primary focus on healthcare and institutional architecture. Her work demonstrates a commitment to design-excellence, high-performance building technologies and sustainable building practices which are rooted in good planning and process driven and practical solutions. Rachel is an effective project executive with a proven expertise and management in the areas of quality, schedule, and cost control, and she frequently coordinates all phases of a project from concept and regulatory requirements to construction. Growing existing client relationships through exemplary performance, achieving excellence in design execution and project delivery including quality assurance and control, and developing new client relationships are her foremost priorities.  

Madeline Julian
AIA, LEED AP

Madeline Julian, AIA, LEED AP, brings over two decades of invaluable experience in architecture, design, and construction, focusing on creating world-class facilities both nationally and internationally.    
  
Madeline leads Capital Project Management at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), spearheading initiatives to enhance the campus and uphold the highest quality standards. In addition to overseeing construction projects, including the new Vagelos Innovation Laboratories building, Madeline promotes collaboration among architectural and project management teams and her peers in CUIMC’s Engineering, Operations, and Campus Life Safety teams. She also leverages her expertise in finance, procurement, and contract compliance to improve our project management processes and drive efficiency and innovation.    
  
Prior to joining CUIMC in mid-2024, she served as the health principal at HDR, overseeing the healthcare sector for New York State and parts of Connecticut. She has managed multimillion-dollar construction portfolios and successfully completed complex projects, including the design and construction of a new 90,000-square-foot clinical laboratory facility at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.   
  
Madeline holds a Bachelor of Architecture with honors from Pratt Institute and is a licensed architect in New York State. 

Brennan G. Koch

Brennan Gilbane Koch, a fifth-generation family member, leads client engagement and strategy for Gilbane Building Company in New York City -- a business unit generating $1.3 billion in annual revenue and employing 315+ people working on over 60 projects across the five boroughs. She oversees initiatives enhancing Gilbane’s distinctive and inclusive people-first culture, evidenced by a three-time membership of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” and twice-awarded Crain’s New York Business “Best Places to Work in New York City.” 
 
Under Brennan’s leadership, Gilbane’s New York City footprint has become increasingly diverse and sustainable across sectors, with Engineering News-Record naming it as the 2021 Contractor of the Year. Brennan’s commitment to client relations has been instrumental in supporting and attracting signature projects. 

Brennan is deeply invested in advancing industry best practices and driving innovation. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Women Builders Council, Salvadori Center, The ACE Mentor Program of America, Inc. (ACE), Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), New York Building Congress (NYBC) and is the co-lead of NYBC’s Council of Industry Women. She also serves on the Founding Leadership Committee of The Opportunity Network’s 3Circles Community and the Board of Advisors for Columbia University’s Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space. In all of these roles, Brennan is a champion for diversity and inclusion in the real estate and construction industry furthering Gilbane’s recently announced $4 billion commitment to Minority and Women-Owned, Disadvantaged, LGBTBE and Veteran businesses over a five-year horizon.  
 
Brennan holds a Master’s degree from Providence College and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where she is on their Real Estate Group steering committee and an alumni leader. Before joining Gilbane, Brennan was an elementary school teacher and currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and two daughters.

Tina Macica
PMP, LEED AP, Six-Sigma Green Belt

Tina Macica is currently the AVP of Design and Construction at Montefiore Einstein overseeing capital delivery for seven of the system’s hospitals, over 200 family practice and specialty group sites, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She believes in truly bringing hospitality to the hospital and healthcare facilities by reimagining the physical environment and prioritizing patients, care givers and staff. Tina has over 30 years of experience in the real estate, design and construction and engineering industry not only working in the healthcare environment but also in nuclear remediation, K-12 and higher education, public works, research, and corporate environments.  

Manjiri Paprikar
AIA, ACHA, LEED AP 

Manjiri’s first experience with healthcare design began during her internship, where she conducted a post-occupancy evaluation of a hospital, This experience revealed to her that the true measure of design success lies in the users feeling valued and cared for in the spaces they inhabit. Her commitment to a person-centered approach in health planning and design has been instrumental in delivering impactful projects of various scales and phases, both domestically and internationally. 

Manjiri combines a solid academic foundation from Texas A&M University with 18 years of dedicated experience in healthcare planning, design, and research.  

With an ability to navigate both micro and macro perspectives, Manjiri can break down challenging problems, transforming data and analytics into engaging narratives and compelling scenarios. This empowers clients to make confident decisions that resonate deeply with the communities they influence. 

Elizabeth Sullivan
Assoc. AIA, LEED GA, EDAC

Elizabeth Sullivan has a 20+ year career dedicated to healthcare planning, design, and construction. Elizabeth has extensive experience in a variety of building types, including multi-family residential, medical office buildings, Academic Medical Centers, labs, etc. Strong project management skills with a focus on the development of collaborative relationships to develop cohesive planning and designs, through all phases of construction documents and construction administration that result in successful projects and solutions to real world challenges.  
Elizabeth has a demonstrated ability to complete multiple complex projects through proactive interaction and communication at all levels within an organization. She has extensive management and medical planning experience.  
Additionally, Elizabeth previously worked as the AVP of Architecture at Northwell Health and former Director of Facilities and Real Estate Planning for Montefiore Health System, in NY. She has unique inside experience from the owner’s perspective working as the client and as consultant, with an understanding of the entire project process from start to finish. Elizabeth was the previous Healthcare Practice Leader at NK Architects, and an Associate Principal at Perkins Eastman, both in NYC.  
Elizabeth is an adjunct professor at the NYSID teaching the Business of Healthcare to the Master of Professional Studies Students in Healthcare Design and is guest lectures for other Architectural and Interior Design Schools across the country.  
Elizabeth is also the former Co-Chair of the AIA-NY Design for Health Committee (2018-2023), on the Advisory Board of the NY Chapter of Women in Healthcare (WIH) and on the Advisory Board and various committees for the NYC Chapter of the American Medical Professionals (AMFP), an Associate AIA member, and credentialed as LEED GA and EDAC.

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