As a healthcare planner, with a background in interior design, Ellen works closely with clients and users to distill their needs into practical and implementable solutions. She has always been passionate about the healthcare market and earned her Master of Health Administration from Webster University in St. Louis soon after earning her Bachelors degree in Interior Design. Her proficiency in analyzing projects spatially and operationally assists clients in achieving business-related goals in new or renovated space, while crafting optimal patient experiences during the most intimate and delicate times in their lives. Ellen’s portfolio includes technically complex projects that serve a multitude of stakeholders, allowing her the unique opportunity to empathize through design with all who find themselves in the healthcare setting.
Courses
Future-Proofing Emergency Departments: Adaptable Environments for Supporting Community Crises
Emergency Departments (ED) can be instantaneously overwhelmed, requiring resilient, adaptable, and flexible solutions of the built environment. Like many healthcare organizations, UC Health, an academic medical organization located in Cincinnati, Ohio, experienced major space challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic on-set and peak. This scenario, and others that ED’s are faced with, can be better supported by innovative uses of non-clinical environments on campus. In this presentation, we will demonstrate solutions applied to an adjacent space to the renovated ED at University of Cincinnati Medical Center that provides added social distanced seating for the entire campus, accommodates separate entries to avoid cross-contaminating infectious and non-infectious presenters, activates additional patient care environments supporting the ED proper, and integrates security and safety measures for all in high-stress, potentially dangerous situations. UC Health has received congressional funding for this project through the CARES (Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act as it will benefit the readiness of the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Cincinnati to better serve the community with a future-proof, resilient facility. Upon completion, the space activation methodologies will be folded into regional readiness training for emergency scenarios and serve as an example of the future of Level 1 Trauma Centers.
Hosted by the Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH).
Course expires 5/29/2026