Priya Cherukuru is a recognized healthcare planner and executive leader at Stanford Healthcare. As a certified land use planner (AICP) with more than 20+ years of experience in strategy and capital improvement planning, she is known for bringing creative, innovative, and consensus-based solutions for space needs in highly constrained and regulated hospitals and clinical environments.
She currently leads the Facilities Planning and Design Department including facilities strategy and development of plans and initiatives with a construction budget of over $8 billion with programs planned for the next 20 years and covering a portfolio of over 5M square feet, 3 Hospitals over 170+ clinic sites, and 50 admin sites for its 20,000 employees, faculty, fellows, and residents. She has grown to become a valued and trusted leader across the enterprise and works closely with partners and peers in the School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine Children's Health, Stanford University and Stanford Medicine-Tri-Valley through a collaborative and governance-based model of influence and proactive planning
Priya has a bachelor's in architecture, Masters in Urban and Regional Planning and is a certified planner with the American Planners Association (APA). Priya also serves on the City of Santa Clara's Planning Commission and was Chair of the City of Santa Clara, Planning Commission, Historical Landmarks Commission and the Architectural Site Approval Committee for County of Santa Clara. In her personal world, she tries to be a 'loving wife' dutiful mom and dog parent!
Courses
Beyond the Chatbot: What AI Actually Does for Healthcare Design
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 | 2-3pm ET
Artificial intelligence is transforming the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, yet many professionals remain uncertain about its practical applications. This panel discussion brings together healthcare owners and project delivery professionals to separate the hype from reality. The session will begin by clarifying what AI means for AEC beyond generative chat tools, followed by a data-driven snapshot of current adoption based on a pre-webinar survey of Academy members. Panelists will demonstrate the potential for AI applications in healthcare design and planning, and in particular, discuss how proper AI-assisted code compliance validation and space programming can ensure facilities meet regulatory requirements and support optimal clinical workflows. As AI tools can help identify design deficiencies earlier in the project lifecycle, firms may see a reduction in the number of costly changes thereby improving the overall quality of healthcare environments. The discussion will conclude with practical guidance on how owners and design teams can organize their historical project data today to unlock AI capabilities tomorrow while avoiding siloed point solutions. A live Q&A will ground the discussion in real project experience.